Chapter 4
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 8000
“The challenged gets to go first.” The man in the tight shirt said. That meant that Kal got the opportunity to go first. That wasn’t usual.
Kal drew his first card, and thought a moment. He had to do this quickly, he had plans for the day and he was burning daylight dueling this punk.
“I Summon one monster in defense mode, and I place one card face down.”
Two card backs appeared just above the ground, one in a horizontal position, the other in a vertical position.
“Your move.” Kal said. “What should I call you?”
The man in the tight shirt drew his card, “My name is Xyle Fortress, but you can call me Xyle. Alright, I Summon Ajani – Magnus of the Beasts in attack mode!”
Its card flipped up, and a humanoid creature with a bunch of furs on his back appeared. He was holding a double ended sharp weapon that was about as long as Kal was tall. ATK: 1900
“I attack your defense mode creature!”
The beast Ajani came at the horizontal card, poised for attack. It swiped its sharp instrument at the card, splitting it in half. A creature that was wrapped in thin white cloth and chains appeared from under the broken card.
“I activate my Trap, Allied Vengeance!” Kal interjected.
The last card on his field popped up, and glowed.
“When you destroy an Ally Monster by battle, which you just did, the attacking monster is destroyed!”
A weapon with a sharp edge appeared in front of the Trap, and the chained monster took it. It threw the weapon at the beast Ajani, and when it hit both monsters burst into a thousand shards.
Then Kal’s Trap left and the field was again empty.
Xyle looked like he was in shock. “A-Alright, I place two cards face down and end my turn,” he stuttered.
Kal drew his next card.
“Okay, I summon Legion’s Elf Sorceress in attack mode!”
The card flipped and an elf with blue clothing appeared. ATK: 1700
‘I have to get rid of those Traps.’ Kal thought, ‘Maybe I can this way.’
“That allows me to activate the special ability of my Legion’s Magician of Tricks! So now that I have one Ally Monster, I can Special Summon him directly underneath it!”
The card flipped and a thin man with a coat and a top hat appeared behind the elf. ATK: 1000.
“No you don’t!” Xyle said, “Because I activate my Trap! Go, Stitch in Time!”
Xyle’s card flipped up and glowed.
“When a monster is Special Summoned, they go back to the top of the deck!”
Kal groaned, “Alright.” He took the Magician of Tricks off the field and placed it on top of his deck. No surprises for next round.
Kal couldn’t afford to not attack if he wanted out quickly. “Elf Sorceress!” he called, “Attack him directly!”
The elf raised her arm and her palm started to glow a green color.
“I activate my other trap! Go, Magnus Blessing!” Xyle said.
‘Great,’ Kal thought.
“When you attack, I can Special Summon one Magnus from my hand, so I Summon Crovix, Magnus of the Undead!”
The card flipped up, and a blue woman dressed in black and carrying a sword appeared. ATK: 1100
“She’s not strong enough to fend off my attack, so Elf, follow through!” Kal said.
The elf launched a beam of green light and energy straight toward the Magnus of the Undead.
The Magnus was destroyed, and it exploded into a thousand shards.
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 7400
“Are you wondering why I didn’t Summon my Magnus in defense? It would have blocked your attack.”
Kal was wondering that very thing. The Magnus had 1800 DEF, 100 points more than the Elf had ATK. He would have saved himself and a gotten a monster.
“Because I can activate her effect now. Since you destroyed her, she is allowed to Special Summon another Magnus from the Graveyard. So I can Special Summon my Ajani back!”
The Beast with the long, double ended weapon came out of the ground, ready for some revenge. ATK: 1900.
‘Crud, now he can destroy my monster next turn and still have a monster. All at the cost of 600 Life Points.’ Kal thought.
Kal took another hopeful glance at his hand, hoping for something that could help him next turn.
“I end.” Kal said.
Xyle looked happy. “I draw!”
“Hey, you remember my monster you destroyed last turn? That was my Legion’s Chained Daemon, and during each of your Standby Phases, like now, you lose 500 Life Points!” Kal said.
A Chain came out of the Graveyard slot of his Duel Disk and went straight for Xyle. It wrapped around him and squeezed 500 points out of him.
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 6900
“Fine, I Summon Glissa – Magnus of the Nature in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and a green humanoid creature dressed with plants appeared. ATK: 1000.
“Now her effect activates! Since my man Ajani is here, she cannot be destroyed by battle, and she also increases the ATK of all my Magnus monsters by 300!”
Glissa: ATK: 1300
Ajani: ATK: 2200
“Now Ajani, attack him directly!”
Ajani went to attack, but Kal had something up his sleeve.
“I discard my Legion’s defender from my hand, and the top card of my deck to negate your attack!” Kal said.
He sent the Defender and the Magician of Tricks from the top of his deck to the Graveyard. A woman in white appeared in front of the beast, arms raised, and the beast backed off.
“That also ends your Battle Phase.” Kal reminded.
“Fine, I end.” Xyle said.
Kal had saved himself, but barely. And he also got rid of the magician of tricks that was on the top of his deck, preventing him from drawing anything else. He was just now realizing the situation that he was in.
He took a look at Xyle. He looked to be late teens, early twenties. He had brown hair, and he was tall, too tall. He was over 6 foot, maybe 6’4”. He wore a Red shirt and black jeans, and a bandana on his right shoulder. Kal wondered what it stood for.
“What’s the bandana for?” Kal said, motioning towards his right shoulder.
“This?” Xyle asked, pointing at the bandana, “This was my fathers. He wore it everyday of his adult life. He wore it especially when he started to lose his hair from the chemotherapy.”
“He had cancer?” Kal asked caringly.
“Yes, both of my parents did. And they both died of it. We were poor, and the doctors wanted the best treatment for them, so they made us a deal to pay back the money eventually. But they died too soon, and they couldn’t teach me any sort of job to do. So now I fend for myself on the outskirts of town, and I help out those in need.”
“By being a thief?” Kal asked.
“It’s the only thing I know.” Xyle said looking down, ashamed.
“Hey man, it’s alright. Life is hard, but you are doing the best with it, I know.” Kal said, trying to pep talk him.
He looked up. A single tear come spilling down his face. I was a bit strange to see such a big, strong guy fall to pieces like this.
Kal decided to change the subject. “I draw! And now I release my Legion’s Elf Sorceress to Advance Summon my Legion’s Leader, in attack mode!”
The elf glowed for a moment, and then disappeared. In its place a man dressed in green armor appeared. ATK: 1800.
“When he is Summoned, he gains counters equal to the amount of Ally Monsters below him, then he can gain ATK points! And he cannot attack without them.” Kal said.
“But there aren’t any Ally Monsters under him, there aren’t any on your field other than him, and he doesn’t count for his effect! He can’t attack!” Xyle said, amused.
“But, I have another card. From my hand, I activate the Spell Card Ally Consolidation! This allows me to place 3 Ally Counters on the field, and I place all of them on my Leader! And for these 3 Counters, he gains 300 ATK points for each!”
Legion’s Leader: ATK: 2700.
Xyle took a step back, “What?”
“Now my Leader, attack his Glissa!”
“You can’t, thanks to my Ajani. He can only be selected as an attack target.” Xyle said.
“Alright, I attack Ajani!” Kal said.
The Leader drew his sword and went for the attack. He swung his sword down on the beast, and it was broken into a thousand shards.
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 6400
“Now my leader looses a counter, because of his effect. And I set one card face down, and end my turn.”
Legion’s Leader: ATK: 2400
“My turn now!” Xyle said as he drew his card.
“And your turn comes with the price of 500 points of damage from my Chained Daemon!” Kal said.
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 5900
“Fine, but now I Summon my Venser – Magnus of The Future.”
His card flipped, and a man with a helmet and flowing clothing appeared. ATK: 1500.
“Now I can activate his effect. I can look at the top and of my deck, and if it is a Magnus Monster I can add it to my hand.”
Xyle looked at the top card and smiled. He showed Kal the card; it was a blue Ritual monster.
“This is my Magnus of the Moon, so I get to add to my hand. Now I can activate the Ritual Spell Blood Moon!”
His card flipped up, and started to glow.
I send my Glissa, Venser, and my Chandra from my hand to reach above the 9 Level minimum, and Ritual Summon my Luunar – Magnus of the Moon!”
The three monsters were sent to the Graveyard, and in their place a Red Monster appeared with a stave. ATK 2850.
“Luunar, attack his Legion’s Leader now!” the monster rose into the air, and started to come down with its weapon.
“I activate my trap, Barrier of the Departed Ally! This allows me to Special Summon one Ally Monster from my Graveyard to the bottom of one Stack, as well as end the Battle Phase. So I Special Summon my Legion’s Magician of Tricks!” Kal said.
The Magician that was summoned in the second turn was resurrected, right behind the leader.
“And that ends your Battle Phase.” Kal Reminded.
“How many stall cards do you have? Fine I end.” Xyle said.
Kal drew his card. “Alright, I activate the special ability of my Magician of Tricks. By discarding one card, I can deal 1000 points of damage to you.”
Kal put his card in the Graveyard and the Magician propelled himself off the shoulders of the Leader. He took out two handfuls of cards and threw them all at Xyle from up in the air. Where the Magician landed gracefully, the cards fell with 1000 damaging blows.
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 4900
“Oh, and you remember the card that I discarded? That is the Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. When he is discarded by an Ally Monster effect, like he just was, he can be Special Summoned in defense mode!”
Kal took the card he just discarded and put it in an empty monster card space in defense position.
The card flipped but remained in a face up horizontal position, and on top appeared a giant, round, rock monster with one eye. DEF: 2100.
“Now I will Ally Summon my Legion’s Samurai to the top of the Stack with my Earthen Brute!”
The Samurai’s card was flipped, and out he came brandishing his familiar long, sharp weapon. ATK: 1500
“Due to the rules for Ally Monsters, all monsters in the Stack must be in the same battle position. So my Defense Power is switched to attack mode.”
The giant rock brought itself to its feet very slowly. Its card beneath itself disappeared.
“But now I will tribute the Brute for the effect of my Samurai, and I can then destroy your Magnus of the Moon!”
The Earthen Brute glowed green, and then evaporated into a glowing, translucent energy. The energy poured into the weapon that the Samurai had. The Samurai flung the weapon and in so doing released the glowing green energy and it ran right into the Moon Magnus, breaking it into a thousand shards.
“Next my two monsters will attack you directly!” Kal said.
Both the Leader and the Samurai attacked Xyle directly, dealing him 3900 points worth of damage.
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 1000
“I end my turn. There is no way that you can win. All I have to do next turn is discard a card for the effect of my Magician. It will finish you off. Sorry Xyle, but there is no hope. My Leader lost a counter by the way, losing 300 ATK points.”
Legion’s Leader: ATK: 2100
“I draw!” Xyle said. Kal could hear the sadness in his voice. He knew that he would lose. But then the weirdest thing happened, Xyle grinned. Not just grinned, but full out laughed. He was happy about something….
“I drew what I needed! The crazy thing was that I said ‘heart of the cards, guide me,’ as a last resort! How funny!” Xyle said.
“Remember the effect of my Chained Daemon? You lose another 500 Life Points.” Kal said.
The Chains returned and choked another 500 points away.
Kal: 8000
Xyle: 500
“Fine, but I activate Monster Reborn!” Xyle said, “And I select my Ajani.”
From the depths of Xyle’s Graveyard came the beast from his first, and maybe last, turn. ATK: 1900.
“But he won’t be staying long, because I Release him for an Advance Summon of my next Magnus, Garruk – Magnus of The Wild!”
The beast Ajani disappeared and in its place came another beast, but this one had a helmet and axe. ATK: 1800
“And now the Special Ability of my Magnus activates! He gets 200 ATK points for all the other Magnus Monsters in the graveyard, and since there are 6, he gets 1200 ATK points!”
Garruk flexed his muscles, and he started to glow. ATK: 3000
“3000 ATK?” Kal gasped, “I never would have thought you could pull that one out.”
“So now I will attack your Samurai, I know that it won’t defeat you, but it sure gets your Life Points down. I couldn’t do any damage to you at any time during the duel, and there is no way I can get to next turn anyhow, so I might as well go out in style, right?” Xyle asked rhetorically.
“Sure,” Kal answered anyway.
“Garruk, attack the Samurai now!”
The beast raised his axe and slammed it down upon the defenseless Samurai. It was blasted into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6500
Xyle: 500
“Go ahead and end it, my friend.” Xyle said, almost beaming at him.
“Alright, I draw. Then I discard it for the effect of my Magician.” Kal said.
The Magician launched himself off the shoulders of the Leader for a second time, and threw down two handfuls of cards and dealing 1000 points of damage to Xyle.
Xyle almost welcomed it, which as strange. Who would wish for defeat?
Kal: 6500
Xyle: 0
“Thank you for that duel my friend.” Xyle said, as he walked up to Kal. He extended his hand to shake.
Kal took it and shook. That’s when he noticed that thee was a crowd of people around them at the edge of the market.
“After that duel I have a new respect for you, but there is one thing. I told you my name, but you have yet to tell me yours.”
Kal looked at Xyle, and thought a moment. The pull out of a 3000 point monster was quite amazing to him; he thought that he deserved to know his name.
“Kal. Kal Iszarc.” Kal said.
“Well, Mr. Iszarc, if you find yourself in a tight spot and are needing some help do not hesitate to find me. I will be more than willing.” Xyle said.
“Thank you.” Kal said.
They released each other’s hands and parted ways. Kal picked up his bag of groceries and walked home.
_____
‘I have made a friend.’ Kal thought to himself as he ate some ArChi. ‘I might need someone in the future, who knows what could come up…’
Kal finished the last bit of his artificial chili, and went up to his bedroom. He pulled off his duel disk and coat and laid them in their usual positions.
He fell onto his bed, not tired but knowing that he needed sleep.
_____
Kal knocked the mail cart over on his way out the door.
“Get his things out of here,” the chief asked Kal’s partner, Deputy Lance Brodorn.
“Me? Why?” Lance asked, motioning to himself.
“Yes you, you’re the only one that he is comfortable around outside of work.”
“No, I meant why get his stuff?”
“Kal has been let go from slacking off on his job,” the chief said.
“No way! He was the one that all of us officers looked up to! He was the best duelist in the precinct!” Lance said.
“You are correct on that point, he was the best. But not any more. Ever since the loss from the duel between him and Joel Karne he hasn’t dueled or acted the same.” The chief said.
Kal slid down the side of the office wall. After hearing that, he was in a mix of pain from anger and sadness. This job is the one thing that he has, and now he doesn’t have that anymore.
Kal walked home with his head down, knowing that Lance would be there later that afternoon with his things.
….
Kal heard a knock at his door. He walked to the front door of his apartment and opened it.
It was Lance Brodorn. He was holding a box.
“Hey, here’s your stuff. Sorry about your job.” Lance said.
“Thanks man.” Kal said, obviously sad.
“Hey, you gonna be alright?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Kal said, trying his best to sound normal. It almost worked.
“No man, I know you and you always have a plan. What are you going to do?”
“Lance, you know I trust you. You have been my partner ever since I entered into it last year. I trust you more than anyone, because I have no one. Not since my parent’s accident…
But you know that I can’t tell you everything, right?” Kal asked.
“Sure, I know. But I don’t want you doing anything drastic, okay?” Lance asked.
“I’m fine, man. Don’t worry about me.” Kal said. This time he was convincing.
“Alright. Well, I’ll see you around.” Lance said, and he walked down the hallway towards the elevator of the building.
Kal shut the door, and set the box down on the coffee table. Kal sat behind it on the couch and peered over the side into its contents.
Inside were three things: He duel disk, his deck, and one pen.
He pulled the disk and deck out and put them on his arm.
“Time to leave,” Kal said to no one in particular.
He went and picked up his bag filled with artificial food and water bottles, and walked out of the apartment, never to return to it.
_____
Kal woke up, and it was dark. He could tell that it was around midnight; it was just something he could feel.
He went to look at his alarm clock to check, but when he turned his head he didn’t see it. In fact he didn’t even see the table.
He looked at the ceiling again and thought, ‘That’s strange. Wait; does it seem like I’m closer to the ceiling?’
He felt for the bed, but he didn’t feel anything. He rolled over, and found himself above his bed by about three feet. He wasn’t supported by anything.
“What??” He was astonished.
But as soon as he talked he fell straight onto the bed. The bed springs still worked, he knew, because as soon as he hit he bounced off the bed and onto the floor, hitting his head on the bedside table. Hs alarm clock bounced off his head and onto his chest. Even though it was upside down he could still read the time.
12:00 PM.
‘Weird.’ Kal thought, and reached up to put the clock back on the table.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Kal woke up the next morning on the floor. He was still in the awkward position from the previous night, after the strange series of events….
‘That must have been a dream.’ Kal thought, ‘there is no other way to explain it…’
Kal went down stairs to eat the second out of the four jars of artificial food. The real food wasn’t given out to venders outside the innermost part of Aequitas. It was part of marketing business in Aequitas to give the poorer food to the poorer people on the outskirts of the town.
They wouldn’t be able to buy it anyway.
Kal sat down in his one chair and began to eat one of his ArBurs. He had left one ArBur and one ArChi in his refrigerator, which has turned into a simple ice box.
With out ice.
But Kal only kept the food in the fridge for nostalgia. The artificial food’s only perk was that it never went bad, mainly because there wasn’t anything in it that was real enough to spoil.
Kal looked at his pocket watch. 4 o’clock it read, and judging by the sun it meant in the afternoon.
‘I sure did sleep a lot,’ Kal thought, ‘Maybe I hit my head too hard when I was coming down…’
When Kal finished the ArBur, he set the empty jar on the floor next to the many other emptied jars in the pile. He had no trash can here, and he had never gotten around to leaving the house just for the trash. Besides, the stuff never went bad. What was the furry to dispose of it?
Kal went back upstairs for his duel disk. He decided that he was going to finish the duel training with Alina today. He thought it was unfair how short he cut their time yesterday, and thought it would be only fair to give more information on how to duel. It was only fair…
Once he got back up the stairs he started to fell dizzy.
‘That’s strange,’ thought Kal.
Kal could only barely reach the edge of his bed before he fell over. He flopped onto the bed, passed out cold.
_____
“Time to leave,” Kal said to no one in particular.
He went and picked up his bag filled with artificial food and water bottles, and walked out of the apartment, never to return to it.
He went to his garage on the outside of the house. He unlocked the door and raised it to reveal his mode of transportation.
It was a sleek, black motorcycle. It was a gift from his father from before their accident…
Kal shook that image from his mind. He needed a level head for his riding.
Kal got on, started the engine, and drove away. Leaving all that he knew and all that he had for a secluded life elsewhere…
Kal drove out of the city and into the country. Outside the major cities, there wasn’t much life. All of the action was in the city, who needed to be far away from it?
At the time, only Kal Iszarc needed to get away. And that wasn’t very hard because once he drove a few miles he was surrounded in dense forests, just barely paved with concrete for delivery trucks, and the occasional wanderer.
…
Kal went as far as half his tank of fuel would let him go, just far enough to get back to the city if he needed to.
He happened to stop in the middle of absolute nowhere. No place had any sign of life, nor did it look like it was ever touched. Everything here was wild.
Kal found a small path that was just big enough to fit his motorcycle down. He turned off the engine and began to push the machine down the path.
He soon came upon a small cave. It wasn’t too large, but it was deep enough to hide himself in the case someone happened upon the same cave.
Kal pushed his motorcycle down to the end of the cave, so that he could have the most room as possible in his new apartment.
He later found berry bushes and small game outside the cave entrance. There was a river that flowed next to the cave, and the water seemed to be fresh. This he could use for drinking, cooking, and bathing water for as long as he needed.
He would use the artificial food for as long as he needed to fashion crude weapons to hunt with, and he would live in this land for as long as he could.
He just needed time alone. His spirit was crushed today when the one thing he had in his life was pulled out from underneath him like a rug.
He just needed time to think. Sort out the series of recent events that had occurred, and on top of that get better at dueling again.
From then on, Kal would wake up and gather water with a bowl that he took from his house. Then he would try to hunt. If he couldn’t find any small animals, then he would spend his time gathering wild berries in his empty backpack. He would then cut firewood with a small machete that he brought from home.
Then he would practice dueling. He would change out cards in his deck by the minute, refining his cards until he had something he thought would be good.
He would practice duel by himself, and imagine the opponent and what sorts of cards they could pull out on him.
He would then change his deck accordingly, taking out the cards that didn’t help him much and putting in new ones that he though could help in a tight spot…
This continued for the next four months, until Kal decided that the daily routine he was living was getting to be too boring for him.
He took his bike back to the shallow road and rode home, soon to find a run down home of his.
It looked like the place had been locked up somehow, maybe Lance did it hen he figured out Kal was gone and that his bike was missing.
Kal still had the keys, so he put his bike away and walked into the house.
_____
Kal woke with a start. He couldn’t remember who he was, or what he was doing for some time, but then it all came flooding back in seconds.
Kal sprang up. The only thing he had on his mind was Alina, and the duel practice that he was going to give her today.
He grabbed his duel disk and sprinted towards the door, only to be stopped dead by the sight of pure darkness, only broken by the light from the street lamps.
‘Maybe I can catch her putting up her cart.’ Kal thought and went into a dead run. He was now thankful for his mechanical leg operation, even though it was never finished.
…
Kal got to the vender’s market, only to find that no one was there. No sound was heard except the wind kicking up the random piece of dirty paper.
Broken hearted, Kal started the long walk back home.
“Hey! You, with the duel disk!” a voice called through the darkness.
There was no need to clarify who the person meant. There was no one else around. It must be Kal whose attention he was trying to catch.
Kal turned to see an upper-teen, lower-twenties male with black hair and red streaks walking toward him. A duel disk was on his arm and a bag over his shoulder.
“I see that you duel. That’s a sweet disk that you have there… What say you duel for it?” the man said.
He didn’t look so tough. Kal could have outrun him easy. But dueling would be a nice way to not waste the trip.
“What if I win? What would I get in return?” Kal asked.
The man looked as if he expected this. He took the bag off his back and flung it to the midpoint between the two of them.
“This bag is filled with about $1000 in jewelry and other objects.” The man said.
Kal got interested instantly, “And how would one acquire this amount of goods, and yet still have an ordinary, run of the mill duel disk?”
“I you must ask, I have stolen this loot. I have been saving for a while, and I thought it might just be easier to win a disk off of someone else. Save me the trouble of getting caught in a store.” The man said, trying not to laugh at his own joke.
Kal seized the opportunity, glad that he always goes prepared with rope and handcuffs.
“Alright. I agree to the terms. On one condition: you play by my rules.” Kal said.
“Agreed.” The man said, looking happy.
“Good. Now what is your name?”
“Call me Dagoris,” the man said.
“Dagoris it is then.” Kal said.
“Duel!” they each called, and they drew their hand of five cards.
Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 8000
“You may take the first move.” Kal said to Dagoris.
He grinned, “Thanks. I draw!”
Dagoris drew his card and paused briefly to think about what his move should be.
“I summon one monster in defense, and set one face down. Your move,” Dagoris said.
Kal drew his card in silence.
“Alright, I summon my Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang!”
Kal set the card onto his duel field, and almost instantly a card appeared in crystal clear holographics. The card glowed for a moment then disappeared, but it left behind a fiend, or rather a pair of fiends.
They were a mirror image of the other, only one was black, and the other was white. They each had one wing, and on each wing were a set of three eyes. ATK: 1500
The black fiend took a pace forward.
“My Yin and Yang are powerful together, but for battle they separate. And for the cost of one card from my hand I can trade them off!”
Kal discarded one card from his hand, and the black fiend took his pace back. The white fiend took a pace forward.
“Now for the special ability that comes from trading them off! When my white fiend attacks, it gains 300 ATK points! Now attack his defense mode creature!”
The white fiend left behind the black fiend for combat, and the attack boost wasn’t far behind.
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1800
The fiend raised its arm for the attack, almost to the horizontal card back hologram. But before it could reach it, Dagoris activated his face down card.
“Reveal face down: Draining Shield! This negates your attack and ends the Battle Phase! And I also get a Life Point bonus from your monster’s attack!”
The trap flipped up, and instantly a translucent barrier appeared in front of the face down card, preventing Kal’s fiend from coming any closer.
Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 9800
“Fine,” Kal said, “I place one card face down and end my turn.”
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1500
Kal set his card and it appeared in front of him.
“My draw!” Dagoris called as he drew his card from his deck.
Kal interject, “You know the card I discard for the effect of my Yin and Yang? Well that is a card called Legion’s Chained Daemon. And during each of your Standby Phases it takes 500 Life Points from you!”
A chain came out from Kal’s Graveyard port of his duel disk and wrapped itself around Dagoris, squeezing the points from him.
Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 9300
“Fine then. I place another monster in defense, and then I activate the field spell Biohazard!”
At the call of ‘field spell’ a slot on the side of his duel disk popped out and gave him the field spell area of the playing field.
Nothing much happened, except a faint green light illuminated the space around them.
“What’s it do?” Kal asked.
“Oh, you’ll see. Until that time, I end my turn.”
Kal again drew his card in silence.
“I will summon to an empty card zone Legion’s Dimensional Splitter, in attack mode.”
The card flipped up and left behind a humanoid beast with fangs. ATK: 1700
“Now all of your cards destroyed by Ally Monsters are removed from play!” Kal said.
“Alright.” Dagoris said calmly. He didn’t seem to think it was that bad.
“Fine. I discard a second Chained Daemon card to activate the effect of my Yin and Yang. Then I attack your first defense with it!”
The white fiend went at its prey from the previous turn.
It was slashed by its wing, but instead of being broken or disappearing it flipped up.
“You activate the effect of my Biohazard 1. Now you lose 100 Life Points for attacking it.”
Kal: 7900
Dagoris: 9300
“Why wasn’t it destroyed?”
“That’s due to the awesome ability of the field spell. It makes it so that no Biohazard monsters can be destroyed by battle.”
Kal groaned, “Alright, then my Dimensional Splitter will attack your other monster.”
The beast with fangs generated an orb of blue light and through it at the last facedown card.
The same thing as the battle before it happened, the card just flipped.
“Do you learn? You just attacked my Biohazard 2, which inflicts 200 points of damage to you. Plus, it isn’t destroyed because of my field spell.” Dagoris grinned.
Kal: 7700
Dagoris: 9300
“Fine, then I end my turn.” Kal said.
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1500
Dagoris drew his next card.
“Don’t forget my two Chained Daemons. They take 1000 point from you.”
The chains returned and choked away 1000 points from Dagoris.
Kal: 7700
Dagoris: 8300
“I summon Shadowpriestess of Ohm in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and a sorceress in dark clothing and holding two whips appeared. ATK: 1700
“Now I can activate the special effect of my Shadowpriestess. I can tribute my face up DARK monsters to inflict you with 800 damage for each. So I tribute both of my biohazards to inflict you with 1600 damage.”
The Shadowpriestess cracked her two whips on the cards and the both turned into orbs of pulsing, purple light. The two orbs launched straight at Kal, dealing him 1600 points of damage.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 8300
“Now I can attack with my Shadowpriestess. Attack his Attack Power now!”
The Shadowpriestess went to attack, but then something strange happened. The Black fiend walked in front of the white fiend.
“You know, when my fiends switch back, they have an awesome ability. They can change themselves into defense mode if attacked. And it just so happens that their DEF is 1800. Unless you want to ram your Priestess into my Attack Power, I think this Battle Phase is over.” Kal said.
“Alright then.” Dagoris said, “I end.”
Kal drew his card, but then started to feel strange. His arms were starting to feel heavy, and his feet felt glued to the pavement.
He didn’t want to show this to Dagoris, he would continue to get arrogant after that…
Kal tried to shake it off and play.
“I summon Legion’s Power – Super Kid, in attack mode.”
Once the card flipped, a grayscale kid with a tattered cape and a large sword appeared. ATK: 1000
“First I switch Yin and Yang into attack mode, and then I will attack the Shadowpriestess with my Super Kid.” Kal said.
Dagoris burst out laughing. “What? Why would you do that? That Kid has less ATK points! It will be destroyed!”
“Check again.” Kal said.
Dagoris did just that.
Legion’s Power – Super Kid: ATK: 2000
“What?” Dagoris asked.
“Super Kid gets his ATK doubled when attacking a stronger monster.” Kal said, matter-of-factly.
The Super Kid ran at the Shadowpriestess with his sword and sliced her in half. She then exploded into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 8000
Legion’s Power – Super Kid: ATK: 1000
“Don’t forget that the Priestess is removed from play by the effect of my Dimensional Splitter. Now I will discard another card to increase the attack of my Yin and Yang by 300.”
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1800
“And I discarded my Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. When he is discarded by an Ally, he is instantly Special Summoned to the field in Defense mode.”
The card flipped and went into a face up, horizontal position. The Earthen Brute appeared right above it, in a defensive stance. DEF: 2100
“Now I will attack you directly with my Yin Yang and my Dimensional Splitter.”
Together they attacked Dagoris with a combined might of 3500 points.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 4500
“I end my turn.”
“I have to say, man, that was pretty cool.” Dagoris said as he drew his card.
The chains of the two Daemons came out once more, taking another 1000 points.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 3500
“I play this monster face down in defense, and I end.”
His card appeared in face down, horizontal position.
Kal knew that this had to be another Biohazard monster, and if that was true it wouldn’t be destroyed.
Kal looked at his field. He had enough power to take Dagoris down; he just needed to get the biohazard monster out of the way.
Kal drew his card again in silence, and he was relieved that he got the card he needed.
“I summon the card that will allow me to win! Legion’s Samurai! And I Stack him on top of my Legion’s Defense Power.” Kal said.
The Samurai’s card flipped up behind the Giant Brute, and the Samurai came down from the sky right in front of him. He brandished the familiar samurai staff with the sharp end.
“Now to activate his effect: I can destroy one monster you control by tributing my Defense Power. Plus, your monster is removed from play because of the effect of my Dimensional Splitter.”
The Earthen Brute disappeared and transformed into a wave of green light. The light was attracted to the staff the samurai was wielding like moths to a flame, and it made the staff glow green as well.
The Samurai swung the staff through the air, releasing the light of power at the card. The card was demolished, and then removed from the game.
“No…” Dragoris said, reaching out to the card hologram that disappeared before his eyes.
Kal started to feel strange again. He had no control over what his body was doing. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, and his arms were heavy again.
All of a sudden the small rocks around them started to shake.
Kal’s eyes started to glow blue, and an aura of yellow light started to glow around them.
Kal was no longer there. He saw nothing, felt nothing, and new nothing of what was going on any longer. Someone else was in his place.
“Dragoris.” The person called. His voice seemed to echo, even though they were in a wide enough space to cancel out the echoes.
“W…what are you doing?” Dragoris asked, frightened.
“I send my Dimensional Splitter, Samurai, and Super Kid to attack you directly.”
With the combined might of the three monsters, Dragoris didn’t have enough life points to survive until the next turn.
Kal: 6100
Dragoris: 0
All of the monsters disappeared, but the light didn’t fade.
Kal started to glow even fiercer, and his eyes started to get angry.
The rocks that were shaking started to levitate, and fly up into the sky.
Kal too started to levitate, about a foot off the ground.
“Dragoris.” His voice reverberated over everything, making it unbelievably loud and menacing.
Dragoris turned to leave, but before he had the chance Kal shouted, “You will stay!”
Dragoris stopped in his tracks, not moving.
The sides of buildings started to be effected by the apparent loss of gravity around Kal; the windows started to crack and chip, and the pieces went into the air.
Kal looked to his cards, only moving his eyes, and all of them were sent directly to the deck slot. Nothing had moved them; they seemed to move by themselves.
Kal looked over to a crate lying on the ground. He willed it to move and it did, straight up into the sky with great velocity.
Kal moved his hand, and with his telepathic abilities he was finding he had, he grabbed the building right next to him. He strained the muscles in his hand, and willed the building to move.
Both Kal’s possessor and Dagoris could hear the building groaning in protest: the cracking of rock and cement, the screeching of pulling metal.
Soon the building was raised off the ground, and was levitating just high enough to be over Dagoris’s head.
“You lose.” The reverberating voice called, and moved his hand as if to move the building over Dagoris’s head.
But he didn’t have the chance.
Just before he could move the building over, Kal was shot in the shoulder with an electrocuting dart of some kind.
The electroshock went through his body at an alarming rate, and knocked him out almost instantly.
The result of this was Kal falling to the ground, and all of his power going away without warning.
The building fell, and crash landed on the ground. The force of this was enough to destroy the building.
So piece by piece the building tumbled down, closing the gap between the possessed Kal and the now freed Dagoris.
…
A moment after Kal hit his head on the ground he woke up. He had a faint recollection of what had just happened, but he only felt the memory like it was a movie; like it wasn’t his body that was doing those things.
Kal looked at his shoulder to see a four-inch dart sticking out of it. Kal pulled his hardest to remove it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Kal heard a commanding voice, and a moment later a series of crashing noises.
Kal looked over to the newly formed barricade to see human arms jabbing holes in the rock and metal, one punch at a time.
Kal’s eyes grew wide, “them,” Kal said out loud, and he rushed to get up.
Kal’s arm was still numb, and his body tingled a bit, but his legs were robotic. It was the one thing about him that allowed him to stand, and the one thing that linked him to them to him, the Cyborg Police force.
Kal had been sent into the CPF at a very young age, and at that time he had thought it had been an honor. But that was nearly 6 months ago, and since then he has learned the evil of the Cyborgs.
They were humans, but not any longer. All of them received robotic limbs, just as Kal had received robotic legs, and their minds were attached to a circuit board. This allowed their brains to be programmed a certain way, most of the time to follow the commands of the higher officers.
Kal ran as fast as he could to get away from the Cyborgs, and save himself from the arrest.
Kal’s robotic legs carried him away from the destroyed building, and the Cyborgs, very quickly. The Cyborgs couldn’t even see which way their fugitive had went.
…
The Police Chief walked out onto the other side of the accident; the Cyborgs had cleared the way in a matter of minutes.
“And where did the other duelist go? Then one causing all of this mayhem.” The chief said to no one in particular.
He looked around and saw a card lying on the ground face down. He went to pick it up, and what he saw shocked him.
It was Legion’s Chained Daemon. The black Ally Monster was unmistakable; it had to be Kal’s.
But he hadn’t seen Kal for five months, why would he resurface now?
“Could it be….?” The police chief said to himself. One of the Cyborgs overheard this comment and walked over to him.
“What is it, Chief?” the Cyborg asked.
“I believe this is a card of the other duelist. Check down that way and to the left to see if there is anyone with a duel disk on Casus Drive.”
The Cyborg rounded up a few others and they started the jog to that street.
Deputy Lance Brodorn overheard the familiar street name. He walked over to the police chief as well.
“The street you told the CPF officers to look, that’s Kal’s street, isn’t it?” Lance asked.
The chief turned and showed the Chained Daemon card to Lance.
Lance looked at it in frustration, “Why is he back now? Do you think that he is the reason to all of these recent findings of criminals in the alleys?”
“I believe it is. Counting this guy Dagoris and that makes 10 this month. We must find Kal; He is making the DPF look like we can’t do our own job correctly.”
The Cyborgs came back just then with a report.
“Well?” the Chief asked.
“We saw no one, but there was a faint sent of exhaust in the air, like someone had just left on a small vehicle. A motorbike of some sort.”
“Kal has a motorcycle. He showed it to me one day. He said his father gave it to him for his sixteenth birthday.” Lance said.
“You remember what it looks like?” the Chief asked.
Lance nodded.
Then get it out to the public. We need all the people we can get the scout for this fugitive. Until we catch him, he is #1 on our Wanted List. Got it??” the Chief asked, starting to get angry.
“Yes, sir!’ all the Cyborgs said imperfect formation, and then they all left at the same moment.
_____
Kal reached home, and got to his front door. He had no time for locks, but he needed some gear from inside.
Once he burst through the door he gathered up his backpack, still filled with the weapons and equipment from the last time he ran away, and shoved the last two jars of artificial food inside with the last of his water bottles.
He then rushed outside and to the garage to his motorcycle, turned it on, and drove away again.
‘I guess Alina won’t get her lesson after all.’ Kal thought sadly as he drove through the night to an unknown destination.
Kal woke up the next morning on the floor. He was still in the awkward position from the previous night, after the strange series of events….
‘That must have been a dream.’ Kal thought, ‘there is no other way to explain it…’
Kal went down stairs to eat the second out of the four jars of artificial food. The real food wasn’t given out to venders outside the innermost part of Aequitas. It was part of marketing business in Aequitas to give the poorer food to the poorer people on the outskirts of the town.
They wouldn’t be able to buy it anyway.
Kal sat down in his one chair and began to eat one of his ArBurs. He had left one ArBur and one ArChi in his refrigerator, which has turned into a simple ice box.
With out ice.
But Kal only kept the food in the fridge for nostalgia. The artificial food’s only perk was that it never went bad, mainly because there wasn’t anything in it that was real enough to spoil.
Kal looked at his pocket watch. 4 o’clock it read, and judging by the sun it meant in the afternoon.
‘I sure did sleep a lot,’ Kal thought, ‘Maybe I hit my head too hard when I was coming down…’
When Kal finished the ArBur, he set the empty jar on the floor next to the many other emptied jars in the pile. He had no trash can here, and he had never gotten around to leaving the house just for the trash. Besides, the stuff never went bad. What was the furry to dispose of it?
Kal went back upstairs for his duel disk. He decided that he was going to finish the duel training with Alina today. He thought it was unfair how short he cut their time yesterday, and thought it would be only fair to give more information on how to duel. It was only fair…
Once he got back up the stairs he started to fell dizzy.
‘That’s strange,’ thought Kal.
Kal could only barely reach the edge of his bed before he fell over. He flopped onto the bed, passed out cold.
_____
“Time to leave,” Kal said to no one in particular.
He went and picked up his bag filled with artificial food and water bottles, and walked out of the apartment, never to return to it.
He went to his garage on the outside of the house. He unlocked the door and raised it to reveal his mode of transportation.
It was a sleek, black motorcycle. It was a gift from his father from before their accident…
Kal shook that image from his mind. He needed a level head for his riding.
Kal got on, started the engine, and drove away. Leaving all that he knew and all that he had for a secluded life elsewhere…
Kal drove out of the city and into the country. Outside the major cities, there wasn’t much life. All of the action was in the city, who needed to be far away from it?
At the time, only Kal Iszarc needed to get away. And that wasn’t very hard because once he drove a few miles he was surrounded in dense forests, just barely paved with concrete for delivery trucks, and the occasional wanderer.
…
Kal went as far as half his tank of fuel would let him go, just far enough to get back to the city if he needed to.
He happened to stop in the middle of absolute nowhere. No place had any sign of life, nor did it look like it was ever touched. Everything here was wild.
Kal found a small path that was just big enough to fit his motorcycle down. He turned off the engine and began to push the machine down the path.
He soon came upon a small cave. It wasn’t too large, but it was deep enough to hide himself in the case someone happened upon the same cave.
Kal pushed his motorcycle down to the end of the cave, so that he could have the most room as possible in his new apartment.
He later found berry bushes and small game outside the cave entrance. There was a river that flowed next to the cave, and the water seemed to be fresh. This he could use for drinking, cooking, and bathing water for as long as he needed.
He would use the artificial food for as long as he needed to fashion crude weapons to hunt with, and he would live in this land for as long as he could.
He just needed time alone. His spirit was crushed today when the one thing he had in his life was pulled out from underneath him like a rug.
He just needed time to think. Sort out the series of recent events that had occurred, and on top of that get better at dueling again.
From then on, Kal would wake up and gather water with a bowl that he took from his house. Then he would try to hunt. If he couldn’t find any small animals, then he would spend his time gathering wild berries in his empty backpack. He would then cut firewood with a small machete that he brought from home.
Then he would practice dueling. He would change out cards in his deck by the minute, refining his cards until he had something he thought would be good.
He would practice duel by himself, and imagine the opponent and what sorts of cards they could pull out on him.
He would then change his deck accordingly, taking out the cards that didn’t help him much and putting in new ones that he though could help in a tight spot…
This continued for the next four months, until Kal decided that the daily routine he was living was getting to be too boring for him.
He took his bike back to the shallow road and rode home, soon to find a run down home of his.
It looked like the place had been locked up somehow, maybe Lance did it hen he figured out Kal was gone and that his bike was missing.
Kal still had the keys, so he put his bike away and walked into the house.
_____
Kal woke with a start. He couldn’t remember who he was, or what he was doing for some time, but then it all came flooding back in seconds.
Kal sprang up. The only thing he had on his mind was Alina, and the duel practice that he was going to give her today.
He grabbed his duel disk and sprinted towards the door, only to be stopped dead by the sight of pure darkness, only broken by the light from the street lamps.
‘Maybe I can catch her putting up her cart.’ Kal thought and went into a dead run. He was now thankful for his mechanical leg operation, even though it was never finished.
…
Kal got to the vender’s market, only to find that no one was there. No sound was heard except the wind kicking up the random piece of dirty paper.
Broken hearted, Kal started the long walk back home.
“Hey! You, with the duel disk!” a voice called through the darkness.
There was no need to clarify who the person meant. There was no one else around. It must be Kal whose attention he was trying to catch.
Kal turned to see an upper-teen, lower-twenties male with black hair and red streaks walking toward him. A duel disk was on his arm and a bag over his shoulder.
“I see that you duel. That’s a sweet disk that you have there… What say you duel for it?” the man said.
He didn’t look so tough. Kal could have outrun him easy. But dueling would be a nice way to not waste the trip.
“What if I win? What would I get in return?” Kal asked.
The man looked as if he expected this. He took the bag off his back and flung it to the midpoint between the two of them.
“This bag is filled with about $1000 in jewelry and other objects.” The man said.
Kal got interested instantly, “And how would one acquire this amount of goods, and yet still have an ordinary, run of the mill duel disk?”
“I you must ask, I have stolen this loot. I have been saving for a while, and I thought it might just be easier to win a disk off of someone else. Save me the trouble of getting caught in a store.” The man said, trying not to laugh at his own joke.
Kal seized the opportunity, glad that he always goes prepared with rope and handcuffs.
“Alright. I agree to the terms. On one condition: you play by my rules.” Kal said.
“Agreed.” The man said, looking happy.
“Good. Now what is your name?”
“Call me Dagoris,” the man said.
“Dagoris it is then.” Kal said.
“Duel!” they each called, and they drew their hand of five cards.
Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 8000
“You may take the first move.” Kal said to Dagoris.
He grinned, “Thanks. I draw!”
Dagoris drew his card and paused briefly to think about what his move should be.
“I summon one monster in defense, and set one face down. Your move,” Dagoris said.
Kal drew his card in silence.
“Alright, I summon my Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang!”
Kal set the card onto his duel field, and almost instantly a card appeared in crystal clear holographics. The card glowed for a moment then disappeared, but it left behind a fiend, or rather a pair of fiends.
They were a mirror image of the other, only one was black, and the other was white. They each had one wing, and on each wing were a set of three eyes. ATK: 1500
The black fiend took a pace forward.
“My Yin and Yang are powerful together, but for battle they separate. And for the cost of one card from my hand I can trade them off!”
Kal discarded one card from his hand, and the black fiend took his pace back. The white fiend took a pace forward.
“Now for the special ability that comes from trading them off! When my white fiend attacks, it gains 300 ATK points! Now attack his defense mode creature!”
The white fiend left behind the black fiend for combat, and the attack boost wasn’t far behind.
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1800
The fiend raised its arm for the attack, almost to the horizontal card back hologram. But before it could reach it, Dagoris activated his face down card.
“Reveal face down: Draining Shield! This negates your attack and ends the Battle Phase! And I also get a Life Point bonus from your monster’s attack!”
The trap flipped up, and instantly a translucent barrier appeared in front of the face down card, preventing Kal’s fiend from coming any closer.
Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 9800
“Fine,” Kal said, “I place one card face down and end my turn.”
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1500
Kal set his card and it appeared in front of him.
“My draw!” Dagoris called as he drew his card from his deck.
Kal interject, “You know the card I discard for the effect of my Yin and Yang? Well that is a card called Legion’s Chained Daemon. And during each of your Standby Phases it takes 500 Life Points from you!”
A chain came out from Kal’s Graveyard port of his duel disk and wrapped itself around Dagoris, squeezing the points from him.
Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 9300
“Fine then. I place another monster in defense, and then I activate the field spell Biohazard!”
At the call of ‘field spell’ a slot on the side of his duel disk popped out and gave him the field spell area of the playing field.
Nothing much happened, except a faint green light illuminated the space around them.
“What’s it do?” Kal asked.
“Oh, you’ll see. Until that time, I end my turn.”
Kal again drew his card in silence.
“I will summon to an empty card zone Legion’s Dimensional Splitter, in attack mode.”
The card flipped up and left behind a humanoid beast with fangs. ATK: 1700
“Now all of your cards destroyed by Ally Monsters are removed from play!” Kal said.
“Alright.” Dagoris said calmly. He didn’t seem to think it was that bad.
“Fine. I discard a second Chained Daemon card to activate the effect of my Yin and Yang. Then I attack your first defense with it!”
The white fiend went at its prey from the previous turn.
It was slashed by its wing, but instead of being broken or disappearing it flipped up.
“You activate the effect of my Biohazard 1. Now you lose 100 Life Points for attacking it.”
Kal: 7900
Dagoris: 9300
“Why wasn’t it destroyed?”
“That’s due to the awesome ability of the field spell. It makes it so that no Biohazard monsters can be destroyed by battle.”
Kal groaned, “Alright, then my Dimensional Splitter will attack your other monster.”
The beast with fangs generated an orb of blue light and through it at the last facedown card.
The same thing as the battle before it happened, the card just flipped.
“Do you learn? You just attacked my Biohazard 2, which inflicts 200 points of damage to you. Plus, it isn’t destroyed because of my field spell.” Dagoris grinned.
Kal: 7700
Dagoris: 9300
“Fine, then I end my turn.” Kal said.
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1500
Dagoris drew his next card.
“Don’t forget my two Chained Daemons. They take 1000 point from you.”
The chains returned and choked away 1000 points from Dagoris.
Kal: 7700
Dagoris: 8300
“I summon Shadowpriestess of Ohm in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and a sorceress in dark clothing and holding two whips appeared. ATK: 1700
“Now I can activate the special effect of my Shadowpriestess. I can tribute my face up DARK monsters to inflict you with 800 damage for each. So I tribute both of my biohazards to inflict you with 1600 damage.”
The Shadowpriestess cracked her two whips on the cards and the both turned into orbs of pulsing, purple light. The two orbs launched straight at Kal, dealing him 1600 points of damage.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 8300
“Now I can attack with my Shadowpriestess. Attack his Attack Power now!”
The Shadowpriestess went to attack, but then something strange happened. The Black fiend walked in front of the white fiend.
“You know, when my fiends switch back, they have an awesome ability. They can change themselves into defense mode if attacked. And it just so happens that their DEF is 1800. Unless you want to ram your Priestess into my Attack Power, I think this Battle Phase is over.” Kal said.
“Alright then.” Dagoris said, “I end.”
Kal drew his card, but then started to feel strange. His arms were starting to feel heavy, and his feet felt glued to the pavement.
He didn’t want to show this to Dagoris, he would continue to get arrogant after that…
Kal tried to shake it off and play.
“I summon Legion’s Power – Super Kid, in attack mode.”
Once the card flipped, a grayscale kid with a tattered cape and a large sword appeared. ATK: 1000
“First I switch Yin and Yang into attack mode, and then I will attack the Shadowpriestess with my Super Kid.” Kal said.
Dagoris burst out laughing. “What? Why would you do that? That Kid has less ATK points! It will be destroyed!”
“Check again.” Kal said.
Dagoris did just that.
Legion’s Power – Super Kid: ATK: 2000
“What?” Dagoris asked.
“Super Kid gets his ATK doubled when attacking a stronger monster.” Kal said, matter-of-factly.
The Super Kid ran at the Shadowpriestess with his sword and sliced her in half. She then exploded into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 8000
Legion’s Power – Super Kid: ATK: 1000
“Don’t forget that the Priestess is removed from play by the effect of my Dimensional Splitter. Now I will discard another card to increase the attack of my Yin and Yang by 300.”
Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1800
“And I discarded my Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. When he is discarded by an Ally, he is instantly Special Summoned to the field in Defense mode.”
The card flipped and went into a face up, horizontal position. The Earthen Brute appeared right above it, in a defensive stance. DEF: 2100
“Now I will attack you directly with my Yin Yang and my Dimensional Splitter.”
Together they attacked Dagoris with a combined might of 3500 points.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 4500
“I end my turn.”
“I have to say, man, that was pretty cool.” Dagoris said as he drew his card.
The chains of the two Daemons came out once more, taking another 1000 points.
Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 3500
“I play this monster face down in defense, and I end.”
His card appeared in face down, horizontal position.
Kal knew that this had to be another Biohazard monster, and if that was true it wouldn’t be destroyed.
Kal looked at his field. He had enough power to take Dagoris down; he just needed to get the biohazard monster out of the way.
Kal drew his card again in silence, and he was relieved that he got the card he needed.
“I summon the card that will allow me to win! Legion’s Samurai! And I Stack him on top of my Legion’s Defense Power.” Kal said.
The Samurai’s card flipped up behind the Giant Brute, and the Samurai came down from the sky right in front of him. He brandished the familiar samurai staff with the sharp end.
“Now to activate his effect: I can destroy one monster you control by tributing my Defense Power. Plus, your monster is removed from play because of the effect of my Dimensional Splitter.”
The Earthen Brute disappeared and transformed into a wave of green light. The light was attracted to the staff the samurai was wielding like moths to a flame, and it made the staff glow green as well.
The Samurai swung the staff through the air, releasing the light of power at the card. The card was demolished, and then removed from the game.
“No…” Dragoris said, reaching out to the card hologram that disappeared before his eyes.
Kal started to feel strange again. He had no control over what his body was doing. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, and his arms were heavy again.
All of a sudden the small rocks around them started to shake.
Kal’s eyes started to glow blue, and an aura of yellow light started to glow around them.
Kal was no longer there. He saw nothing, felt nothing, and new nothing of what was going on any longer. Someone else was in his place.
“Dragoris.” The person called. His voice seemed to echo, even though they were in a wide enough space to cancel out the echoes.
“W…what are you doing?” Dragoris asked, frightened.
“I send my Dimensional Splitter, Samurai, and Super Kid to attack you directly.”
With the combined might of the three monsters, Dragoris didn’t have enough life points to survive until the next turn.
Kal: 6100
Dragoris: 0
All of the monsters disappeared, but the light didn’t fade.
Kal started to glow even fiercer, and his eyes started to get angry.
The rocks that were shaking started to levitate, and fly up into the sky.
Kal too started to levitate, about a foot off the ground.
“Dragoris.” His voice reverberated over everything, making it unbelievably loud and menacing.
Dragoris turned to leave, but before he had the chance Kal shouted, “You will stay!”
Dragoris stopped in his tracks, not moving.
The sides of buildings started to be effected by the apparent loss of gravity around Kal; the windows started to crack and chip, and the pieces went into the air.
Kal looked to his cards, only moving his eyes, and all of them were sent directly to the deck slot. Nothing had moved them; they seemed to move by themselves.
Kal looked over to a crate lying on the ground. He willed it to move and it did, straight up into the sky with great velocity.
Kal moved his hand, and with his telepathic abilities he was finding he had, he grabbed the building right next to him. He strained the muscles in his hand, and willed the building to move.
Both Kal’s possessor and Dagoris could hear the building groaning in protest: the cracking of rock and cement, the screeching of pulling metal.
Soon the building was raised off the ground, and was levitating just high enough to be over Dagoris’s head.
“You lose.” The reverberating voice called, and moved his hand as if to move the building over Dagoris’s head.
But he didn’t have the chance.
Just before he could move the building over, Kal was shot in the shoulder with an electrocuting dart of some kind.
The electroshock went through his body at an alarming rate, and knocked him out almost instantly.
The result of this was Kal falling to the ground, and all of his power going away without warning.
The building fell, and crash landed on the ground. The force of this was enough to destroy the building.
So piece by piece the building tumbled down, closing the gap between the possessed Kal and the now freed Dagoris.
…
A moment after Kal hit his head on the ground he woke up. He had a faint recollection of what had just happened, but he only felt the memory like it was a movie; like it wasn’t his body that was doing those things.
Kal looked at his shoulder to see a four-inch dart sticking out of it. Kal pulled his hardest to remove it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Kal heard a commanding voice, and a moment later a series of crashing noises.
Kal looked over to the newly formed barricade to see human arms jabbing holes in the rock and metal, one punch at a time.
Kal’s eyes grew wide, “them,” Kal said out loud, and he rushed to get up.
Kal’s arm was still numb, and his body tingled a bit, but his legs were robotic. It was the one thing about him that allowed him to stand, and the one thing that linked him to them to him, the Cyborg Police force.
Kal had been sent into the CPF at a very young age, and at that time he had thought it had been an honor. But that was nearly 6 months ago, and since then he has learned the evil of the Cyborgs.
They were humans, but not any longer. All of them received robotic limbs, just as Kal had received robotic legs, and their minds were attached to a circuit board. This allowed their brains to be programmed a certain way, most of the time to follow the commands of the higher officers.
Kal ran as fast as he could to get away from the Cyborgs, and save himself from the arrest.
Kal’s robotic legs carried him away from the destroyed building, and the Cyborgs, very quickly. The Cyborgs couldn’t even see which way their fugitive had went.
…
The Police Chief walked out onto the other side of the accident; the Cyborgs had cleared the way in a matter of minutes.
“And where did the other duelist go? Then one causing all of this mayhem.” The chief said to no one in particular.
He looked around and saw a card lying on the ground face down. He went to pick it up, and what he saw shocked him.
It was Legion’s Chained Daemon. The black Ally Monster was unmistakable; it had to be Kal’s.
But he hadn’t seen Kal for five months, why would he resurface now?
“Could it be….?” The police chief said to himself. One of the Cyborgs overheard this comment and walked over to him.
“What is it, Chief?” the Cyborg asked.
“I believe this is a card of the other duelist. Check down that way and to the left to see if there is anyone with a duel disk on Casus Drive.”
The Cyborg rounded up a few others and they started the jog to that street.
Deputy Lance Brodorn overheard the familiar street name. He walked over to the police chief as well.
“The street you told the CPF officers to look, that’s Kal’s street, isn’t it?” Lance asked.
The chief turned and showed the Chained Daemon card to Lance.
Lance looked at it in frustration, “Why is he back now? Do you think that he is the reason to all of these recent findings of criminals in the alleys?”
“I believe it is. Counting this guy Dagoris and that makes 10 this month. We must find Kal; He is making the DPF look like we can’t do our own job correctly.”
The Cyborgs came back just then with a report.
“Well?” the Chief asked.
“We saw no one, but there was a faint sent of exhaust in the air, like someone had just left on a small vehicle. A motorbike of some sort.”
“Kal has a motorcycle. He showed it to me one day. He said his father gave it to him for his sixteenth birthday.” Lance said.
“You remember what it looks like?” the Chief asked.
Lance nodded.
Then get it out to the public. We need all the people we can get the scout for this fugitive. Until we catch him, he is #1 on our Wanted List. Got it??” the Chief asked, starting to get angry.
“Yes, sir!’ all the Cyborgs said imperfect formation, and then they all left at the same moment.
_____
Kal reached home, and got to his front door. He had no time for locks, but he needed some gear from inside.
Once he burst through the door he gathered up his backpack, still filled with the weapons and equipment from the last time he ran away, and shoved the last two jars of artificial food inside with the last of his water bottles.
He then rushed outside and to the garage to his motorcycle, turned it on, and drove away again.
‘I guess Alina won’t get her lesson after all.’ Kal thought sadly as he drove through the night to an unknown destination.
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Kal was speeding to get out of the town. He could have been seen by any officer on traffic duty, but he didn’t care. In fact, it only made him go faster.
The dart wasn’t helping his experience on the bike either. His arm was completely asleep now, so if he needed to suddenly stop that was out of the question. His hand couldn’t grip the break.
So Kal was trying his hardest to stay alert, and to drive the safest as he could.
The night was dark, and he was heading out of the city. He thought for a moment of his last travel like this. He thought about spending time in the cave again, no one found him while he spent all his time hunting and gathering berries.
But that thought was cut short when he realized that he was heading in the opposite direction from the forests. In this direction was the next big city, Succurro. He might be able to find refuge there, Succurro was a large enough city, and he might even be looked over if the DPF officers went looking for him.
‘If? Yeah, sure…. It’s more a thought of when…’ Kal thought to himself.
Then the ‘Low Gas’ light on his bike flickered on. Kal sighed.
‘Just one more thing to top this already awesome day…..’
Kal new that he would have to stop, and soon. He couldn’t get to Succurro on how much gas he had left, he would need to find a gas station of some sort.
Kal had his first piece of fortune for the day. A tiny gas station with only two pumps just came into view as he started to coast over a hill. The light was still on, a weird sight to see this far out of the city limits at this time of night.
Kal stopped next to the first pump and started fueling. Once the take was full, he went inside. The clerk watched his every move as he walked up and down the many shelves of junk food and soda. Kal picked himself a bag of jerky and a two liter of soda; he had enough space to fit them in his side compartments of his bike.
Kal went up to pay, and realized that the man was still staring at him. But not at his eyes, at his chest…
Kal looked down as saw the four inch dart still in his shoulder. His arm wasn’t numb anymore, but he still didn’t have the strength to pull it out. He had completely forgotten about the dart when he saw the open gas station, and he hadn’t bothered trying to pull it out before hand.
Kal freaked out and tried to hide it from view, even though he knew it wouldn’t make a difference.
“Calm yourself, friend.” The man behind the counter said, “We all have rough patches time to time.”
Kal was unsure of what the man meant, but he seemed oddly calm. Every one can spot a Cyborg Dart; it wasn’t a weapon that common criminals use. Common criminals go for the quick, easy kill with a bullet, but the Cyborgs are into something else entirely…..
Kal calmed down and relaxed himself. He took the time to look at the man behind the counter.
He had long, dark hair, much like his own, and stood up to about 6 foot 1. He was muscular, but not to the extreme. He still had a small keg out in front to take care of as well. He was wearing a thin, white tank top, and a pair of blue jeans.
“What is your name?” the man asked.
Kal would rather not say his true name, so he used an alias that he commonly used as a DPF officer.
“Jean. Jean Amicus.”
“Pleased to meet you, Jean. I see that you have a duel disk…” the man started, and trailed off unexpectedly.
Kal raised his left arm and showed the machine to the man.
“Yeah, I have one.” Kal, or rather Jean, replied.
“How good are your dueling skills?” the man asked as he scrutinized the disk.
“I get along alright. Why do you ask?”
“I would like to invite you to a tournament, unless you are on your way to it already.”
“Tournament?” Kal asked.
“Ah, I see that you haven’t heard. Well, there will be a Duel Monsters tournament starting in two days. The tournament provides room and board, all meals, as well as the tournament itself.
It will be a single elimination tournament, lose once and you’re out. It should only take a few days, maybe a week, to finish the tournament.”
“And the prize?” Kal asked.
The man’s eyes lighted up, he knew that Kal was interested now. “The prize is a penthouse suite in Succurro’s main hotel, the Palmarium. It is fully furnished and is applicable to all hotel accommodations, such as room service and cleaning of the room on regular intervals.”
Kal thought for a moment that this is something worth having. After his stay for a month in his decrepit old house, he might actually be able to sleep in a room when rain wouldn’t fall on his face….
“Sounds interesting. And you said this was in…?”
“It is being held in the Palmarium, as it turns out.” The man said.
“And what would be the cost?” Kal asked. He had barely enough money to pay for his bill at the gas station, let alone a major tournament.
The man grinned. “I see great talent in you, Jean. As it turns out, I am one of the talent scouters for this tournament, and any person I see with real merit I can get in for free.”
“Really?” Kal asked. This might be his big break, something to get him out of this hole that he has been working his way into. Maybe winning a major tournament such as this could prove to the chief that he can duel, and maybe he can get his job back.
“I’ll do it.” Kal said.
“Great! Here is a flyer, and an application. All I will need is your name, and a way to contact you.”
Kal quickly signed ‘Jean Amicus’ and scribbled a phone number. He didn’t have a cell phone, but his parents did. They would be able to contact Kal, they knew how.
The man looked over the form, then folded it once and stuck it in his shirt pocket.
Kal looked at the flyer. It was a very decorative piece of artwork, complete with gold leaf and embossed edges. It had all of the information on it and more: it also stated that there would be a card shop.
“Will this be all for you today?” the man asked, motioning to his two items sitting on the counter.
“I also have gas on pump one.” Kal said.
“Okay, that brings your total to $19.36.”
Kal took out of his pocket the oldest twenty dollar bill in creation. It was so fragile that he had to carry it in the corner for it to not fall apart. Kal had held that bill in his possession for as long as he could remember, and he had it in case of emergency.
Now his emergency fund has been depleted completely.
The man behind the counter gave Kal his change. “I wish you luck at the tournament,” he said.
“Thanks,” Kal said as he walked out to his bike.
…
Kal was back on the road again in no time, and he was sailing through the cool, night air at alarming speed.
No one was ever on the roads between cities, unless it was for transport of products from one major city to another. Or unless the police were after a fugitive.
Kal wasn’t worried about that though; he was just trying to stay focused on the road. He had two things on his mind that were taking all of his focus.
The first was about the tournament. He was so excited about such an opportunity; he hadn’t ever been in a tournament. He was in school, and then he went straight into the DFP. He didn’t even have time to graduate from Battle Academy, the renowned ‘duel school’ that all aspiring duelist go to learn from, because he was so good.
He was more excited about this tournament than anything else in his entire life.
The other thing on his mind was the strange events that happened during his duel in the alley. Had he actually levitated? Did he actually pick up a building with his mind? Was he actually going to drop the building on Dagoris’s head?
These questions were piling up in his head. He wanted to know how he tapped into this power, how he could control it, and most of all, where did it come from?
Kal was so confused and so happy that it was hard trying to define what mood he was in. And this was what was distracting him from the road.
But he did have to worry much longer. As he crested the top of another hill, at last the city of Succurro was in sight. It had many tall buildings, but the main focus was the building in the center of the city. It was taller than all of the surrounding buildings by a few stories at least. It was a regular, square shaped design until you go to the top, where the top floor was a circular shape. If you paid attention, you could see that the top floor moved very slowly in a clockwise direction. This way you could see the sunrise and the sunset from the same spot in your bedroom.
This building was the Palmarium, so the place where they were going to hold the tournament wasn’t that hard to find. If you get lost, just look up to find the giant, rotating, circular hotel room.
The sight of this building made Kal only get even more excited. Kal turned the throttle back and started his sprint toward the town.
…
Once inside the city, he drove through the lanes of busy traffic until he got to the Palmarium’s large parking garage across the street. He parked his bike in the most convenient place, and then walked up to the lobby.
‘I wonder if they will let me stay the next two days until the tournament….’ Kal thought to himself. If they didn’t, then he didn’t know what he was going to do until then.
He walked up to the front desk in awe. The building had a very tall ceiling, and everything was in the colors of crimson and gold. There were many gold pillars supporting the building in the lobby, but they also looked like graceful pieces of artwork.
He was still looking around when he finally stopped at the front desk. The clerk glanced at him for a moment, expecting him to say something as to the nature of his business, but after him just staring around like cat in a doghouse, she just left him to his business.
Soon the wait was too unnerving for her to handle, “Can I help you?” she asked.
Kal instantly snapped out of his trance, and he went back into the serious, business-like attitude like his usual self.
“Yes, I would like to find out if the rooms for the contestants in your tournament are ready.” Kal asked.
The woman looked at him for a moment, and then looked like she was thinking about something. Whatever it was, soon she had made a decision.
“You are a duelist?” she asked.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I am.” Kal said. He raised his duel disk for corroboration. The woman stood up to get a better look at the machine.
“Alright. Name?” she asked.
“Jean Amicus.”
She typed the name into a computer, and she frowned. “I’m sorry, but there is no one reserved for this tournament under that name.”
Just then the fax machine behind the clerk started buzzing. Soon a paper fell out onto a tray. The clerk picked it up and started reading.
“You have good timing; this is a fax from Bill Utilis stating that you are a competitor, and the final one to enter. Congratulations,” she said, trying to sound cordial.
“That is nice timing.” Kal agreed.
“The rooms are shared, two competitors to a room. I will place you in room 512, which is on the fifth floor,” she said, “the elevators are that way.”
She had pointed to her left, and Kal looked over to see a row of four sets of metal doors. The woman gave him a key, and soon Kal was on his way.
…
Kal made it to the fifth floor, and followed the signs to show him the way to 512.
When he got there, he heard noises behind the door. ‘Alright, I guess my roommate is already settled in…’ Kal thought.
Kal slide the key card into the slot and opened the door. When he walked inside, he saw a teenaged boy lying on the bed closest to the window. He had short, spiked blonde hair. He was wearing a white shirt and jeans, and was watching TV.
When Kal walked into the room he put the TV on mute, and he stood up off his bed.
“Hello, my name is Max Aufero.” He said, extending his hand out to shake.
“Hello, Max,” Kal said, “My name is Jean Amicus.”
“Pleased to meet you John.” He said.
“No, you have to put more of a ‘z’ sound on the J. It’s Jean, not John.” Kal said, smiling.
Max frowned a playful frown, “Oh alright, Zohn….”
The two laughed a bit. Kal knew that he was going to have a fun time at this tournament.
“So, how many tournaments have you been to?” Max asked, flopping back onto the bed.
“This will be my first.” Kal replied.
“Nice start, actually. It is pretty impressive to be starting out here at the Palmarium. But that makes the competition only stronger; you will have to bring your Z game.”
“Z game? What happened to A game?” Kal asked.
“Well, when you go up above A in the alphabet, you can only go up to Z…..” Max replied.
Kal chuckled a bit at that, “I guess that is true. How many have you been to?”
“This will be my eighth. This is all I have left now that I am out of Battle Academy.”
“You were in Battle Academy?” Kal asked, wondering if Max had ever seen him there. If he had he could pull the curtain on his ruse...
“Not to the Battle Academy, no. I went to Battle Academy II, over here in Succurro.”
“Oh,” Kal said, relieved.
“Yeah. But I haven’t ever won a tournament. I have gotten close several times, but I have never taken first. This will be my year though; this will be the year when Max Aufero is known!”
“That would be nice. I just hope that I don’t flunk out in the preliminaries…”
“Yeah, I hope that doesn’t happen to me either...” Max agreed.
Then they sat in silence for a while. Kal went to unpack his things into his dresser that was provided. It was pretty easy, since he only had two other sets of clothes with him.
Kal laid down on his bed, ready for sleep, but he wanted to know more about Max. Just one more thing…
He turned to face Max, who had since turned on the sound of the television and had started watching it again.
“What kind of deck do you have?” Kal asked.
Max turned and looked at him; on his face was a look of anxiousness.
“I thought you would never ask!” he said, and he sprung up off his bed and darted for his duel disk.
“I duel with these,” he said as he fanned out his cards to Kal, “They are called the ‘Deserter Knights.’”
“What do they do?” Kal asked, intrigued.
Max’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, “They remove themselves from play, and then they come back later to activate their effects. Look at this one,” Max said as he pulled one out of the stack of cards.
It was a night, of course, with black hair and dark armor. The name read ‘Deserter Knight – the Wanderer.’
“This guy can either inflict damage to your opponent, or destroy a card on the field when he comes back.” Max said.
“That’s cool.” Kal said. And it really was. He had never heard of anything like these Knights. He had heard of cards that remove cards from play, but these guys do it to themselves!
“Yep, I think so too. What do you duel with?”
Kal reached over to his deck and showed them to his new friend.
“I duel with Ally Monsters.” Kal said.
“I never heard of them. What do they do?”
“They stack on top of each other, and they swarm the field with their many effects. They are quite fun to duel with.” Kal replied.
“I am sure they are. Well, I wish you the best of luck with that deck, but right now I would like to get some sleep, how ‘bout you?”
“Sounds good to me.” Kal replied.
_____
For once Kal slept with no dreams. It was quite a nice break from having the same dreams every night…
Kal walked down to breakfast that morning. He ate in silence without his roommate. H slept in too long for Kal to wait for him.
Kal took the day to walk around the city, not bothering to hide from view. He bent over to pick up a nice rock he saw when his shoulder started hurting. It was the shoulder that had the dart in it. Kal had taken it out before he walked out of the parking garage, and he tossed it in the nearest trash can he saw. His shoulder has hurt ever since.
He decided he didn’t like the rock, so he dropped it anyway.
He continued his walk, and he didn’t return to the hotel until nightfall.
_____
By the day of the tournament Kal was bored out of his mind. Max had gone somewhere the day of Kal’s walk, so he was just left with an empty room with no one to talk too.
Sure Kal had TV, but the daily drama shows only annoyed him. So Kal was left with either sleeping, or building a better deck. Kal choose the latter, and he had even gone to the Card Shop. He traded some of his unneeded cards for some that he thought would help, and soon he had built the best deck he had ever had.
But now, he was bored out of his mind.
Kal checked his watch. ‘9:00,’ Kal thought, ‘duels start at 10:00, so I have an hour to kill…’
Kal had already eaten breakfast, and had already gotten his duel disk ready. He decided to just sit in the cafeteria until 10:00.
…
It was finally 10:00, and soon all of the competitors and spectators were walking into the seventh floor. This floor was just one big empty space, so it was perfect for dueling in. The Palmarium Staff had set up a series of bleachers around the middle of the area, the space where everyone would duel.
The special thing about the floor was that it was very thick, clear material. It wasn’t glass. That could break too easily. But this material was clear enough so that the people on the next floor down could see the duelists as well. They were not going to sum out of seating room.
The first round was going to start in a matter of moments.
A man in a black suit and tie walked into the middle of the clear floor and started talking into a microphone.
“Are you ready to see some duel action!?” the announcer asked with almost too much enthusiasm.
The crowed cheered and screamed their approval.
“Well let’s not prolong the fun any longer! In the first duel, the competitors will be: Shairalia Blonevech vs. Jean Amicus!” the announcer said.
A Russian man stood up in the crowd. He looked at his side and said something, but not to anyone that Kal could see.
‘Great, I’m going first… how’d that happen?’ Kal thought.
Kal stood up as well, and they both walked into the middle of the room.
“Alright guys, I want a fair match between the both of you. Now, Duel!” the announcer said, and he backed away from the pair.
“You ready for this, my friend?” Shairalia asked, but not to Kal. He seemed to be talking to himself.
‘Great, I go first, and I get to duel a nut job…’ Kal thought.
“Duel!” they both said, and they drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 8000
“I shall start,” Shairalia said, and drew his next card.
“Alright, I summon Arctic Diver, in attack mode!” he said.
The card flipped face up, and a blue, slender creature appeared. ATK: 1700/ LV: 4
“Now for his Special Ability! By placing an Ice Counter on this card, I can place one level for Ice Crystal monster on the top of my deck! And I choose The Frostbitten Knight!”
Shairalia placed the card from his deck onto the top.
“And then I will place one card face down and end my turn.”
Kal drew his card in silence. He knew that the facedown card was a trap, so he had to get rid of it.
“Let’s MST your facedown!” Kal said, activating the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon.
The card flipped up, and tornado appeared above Shairalia’s face down card. The card broke into a thousand shards to be revealed as dimensional prison.
“Alright, let the fun begin! I will Normal Summon my Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and two identical yet opposite fiends with one wing each appeared. One was black, and one was white. The black one stepped forward, leaving the white fiend one step behind. ATK: 1500/ LV: 4
“Ha! He can’t beat my Diver! See, what did I tell you?” Shairalia asked no one in particular. Kal was getting unnerved by this behavior. What was he trying to do?
“I will now activate his Special Ability! Buy discarding one card, I am able to change his attribute to LIGHT, and when that happens he gains 300 attack points!” Kal said.
The black fiend took a step back, and the white one took its place in front. ATK: 1800
“Now, attack his arctic diver now!” Kal said.
The white fiend leapt into the air, and slashed his wing down upon the slender creature on Shairalia’s side of the field.
The monster was gone in a matter of moments, broken into a thousand shards.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 7900
“I get to draw a card now from my monster’s ability. Now I will place one card face down and end my turn. And now my creature’s attribute turns back to DARK.” Kal said.
The black fiend took his post again. ATK: 1500
Shairalia drew his next card.
“Hey, do you remember the card I discarded? It just happens to be that it is my Legion’s Chained Daemon, and he takes 500 Life Points away from you during your Standby Phase!” Kal interjected.
A chain shot out of the graveyard slot of Kal’s duel disk and wrapped itself around Shairalia’s throat.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 7400
“Alright, time to destroy your creature! I summon The Frostbitten Knight, in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and a strong man in furs appeared. ATK: 2000/LV: 4
“What!? A 2000 attack monster??” Kal exclaimed.
“Indeed, now attack his Attack Power!” Shairalia said.
“Well, here’s time for my monster’s ability. When he is selected as an attack target, he can change to defense position.” Kal said, “It won’t save him, but it will save my Life Points.”
The fiend turned into a defensive stance, and was soon destroyed by the strong man in the fur.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 7400
“I end my turn.”
Kal drew his card, but then something happened with the Frostbitten Knight. He lost 100 attack points.
“Huh?” Kal exclaimed.
“Tis the cost of keeping him on the field. During each Standby Phase he loses 100 attack points.” Shairalia stated.
“Alright…” Kal said, “I will activate my face down, Legion’s Magma Stone, Standlach! Now he is a trap monster, so I get to Special Summon him to the field!”
Kal flipped the trap, and then placed it on the field in attack position.
A big heap of red, glowing rock appeared, and it looked angry. ATK: 1400/LV: 5
Now to activate his special ability. I can Special Summon one level 3 Ally monster from my hand to the top of his stack! So I Summon my Legion’s Warrior in attack mode!”
A warrior in black, ragged clothing appeared. He had a long dagger as his weapon. ATK: 1300/ LV: 3
“And my Standlach as another Special Ability, it gives the Special Summoned monster a 700 attack boost!”
The dagger grew larger, into a sword. ATK: 2000.
“Now, Warrior gains the abilities of all the monsters below it, so I can Special Summon another level 3 Ally Monster to the top of the Stack, and he too will get a power boost. So now I will summon Legion’s Samurai!”
The familiar black armored samurai with the long staff appeared; ready to fight in front of the warrior and the magma rock. ATK: 1500 --> 2200/ LV: 3
“Now for my Samurai’s special ability! I can tribute my warrior to destroy a monster you control!”
The warrior disappeared into a dark purple light, and the light was attracted to the Samurai’s staff. The Staff glowed deep purple, and the Samurai flung the light off of the staff and straight into Shairalia’s Monster. The monster was destroyed as well.
“Now, I can attack you directly!” Kal said, and the Samurai walked forward with this staff ready. He sliced right through Shairalia, taking 2200 points out of him.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 5200
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
To be continued…
Kal was speeding to get out of the town. He could have been seen by any officer on traffic duty, but he didn’t care. In fact, it only made him go faster.
The dart wasn’t helping his experience on the bike either. His arm was completely asleep now, so if he needed to suddenly stop that was out of the question. His hand couldn’t grip the break.
So Kal was trying his hardest to stay alert, and to drive the safest as he could.
The night was dark, and he was heading out of the city. He thought for a moment of his last travel like this. He thought about spending time in the cave again, no one found him while he spent all his time hunting and gathering berries.
But that thought was cut short when he realized that he was heading in the opposite direction from the forests. In this direction was the next big city, Succurro. He might be able to find refuge there, Succurro was a large enough city, and he might even be looked over if the DPF officers went looking for him.
‘If? Yeah, sure…. It’s more a thought of when…’ Kal thought to himself.
Then the ‘Low Gas’ light on his bike flickered on. Kal sighed.
‘Just one more thing to top this already awesome day…..’
Kal new that he would have to stop, and soon. He couldn’t get to Succurro on how much gas he had left, he would need to find a gas station of some sort.
Kal had his first piece of fortune for the day. A tiny gas station with only two pumps just came into view as he started to coast over a hill. The light was still on, a weird sight to see this far out of the city limits at this time of night.
Kal stopped next to the first pump and started fueling. Once the take was full, he went inside. The clerk watched his every move as he walked up and down the many shelves of junk food and soda. Kal picked himself a bag of jerky and a two liter of soda; he had enough space to fit them in his side compartments of his bike.
Kal went up to pay, and realized that the man was still staring at him. But not at his eyes, at his chest…
Kal looked down as saw the four inch dart still in his shoulder. His arm wasn’t numb anymore, but he still didn’t have the strength to pull it out. He had completely forgotten about the dart when he saw the open gas station, and he hadn’t bothered trying to pull it out before hand.
Kal freaked out and tried to hide it from view, even though he knew it wouldn’t make a difference.
“Calm yourself, friend.” The man behind the counter said, “We all have rough patches time to time.”
Kal was unsure of what the man meant, but he seemed oddly calm. Every one can spot a Cyborg Dart; it wasn’t a weapon that common criminals use. Common criminals go for the quick, easy kill with a bullet, but the Cyborgs are into something else entirely…..
Kal calmed down and relaxed himself. He took the time to look at the man behind the counter.
He had long, dark hair, much like his own, and stood up to about 6 foot 1. He was muscular, but not to the extreme. He still had a small keg out in front to take care of as well. He was wearing a thin, white tank top, and a pair of blue jeans.
“What is your name?” the man asked.
Kal would rather not say his true name, so he used an alias that he commonly used as a DPF officer.
“Jean. Jean Amicus.”
“Pleased to meet you, Jean. I see that you have a duel disk…” the man started, and trailed off unexpectedly.
Kal raised his left arm and showed the machine to the man.
“Yeah, I have one.” Kal, or rather Jean, replied.
“How good are your dueling skills?” the man asked as he scrutinized the disk.
“I get along alright. Why do you ask?”
“I would like to invite you to a tournament, unless you are on your way to it already.”
“Tournament?” Kal asked.
“Ah, I see that you haven’t heard. Well, there will be a Duel Monsters tournament starting in two days. The tournament provides room and board, all meals, as well as the tournament itself.
It will be a single elimination tournament, lose once and you’re out. It should only take a few days, maybe a week, to finish the tournament.”
“And the prize?” Kal asked.
The man’s eyes lighted up, he knew that Kal was interested now. “The prize is a penthouse suite in Succurro’s main hotel, the Palmarium. It is fully furnished and is applicable to all hotel accommodations, such as room service and cleaning of the room on regular intervals.”
Kal thought for a moment that this is something worth having. After his stay for a month in his decrepit old house, he might actually be able to sleep in a room when rain wouldn’t fall on his face….
“Sounds interesting. And you said this was in…?”
“It is being held in the Palmarium, as it turns out.” The man said.
“And what would be the cost?” Kal asked. He had barely enough money to pay for his bill at the gas station, let alone a major tournament.
The man grinned. “I see great talent in you, Jean. As it turns out, I am one of the talent scouters for this tournament, and any person I see with real merit I can get in for free.”
“Really?” Kal asked. This might be his big break, something to get him out of this hole that he has been working his way into. Maybe winning a major tournament such as this could prove to the chief that he can duel, and maybe he can get his job back.
“I’ll do it.” Kal said.
“Great! Here is a flyer, and an application. All I will need is your name, and a way to contact you.”
Kal quickly signed ‘Jean Amicus’ and scribbled a phone number. He didn’t have a cell phone, but his parents did. They would be able to contact Kal, they knew how.
The man looked over the form, then folded it once and stuck it in his shirt pocket.
Kal looked at the flyer. It was a very decorative piece of artwork, complete with gold leaf and embossed edges. It had all of the information on it and more: it also stated that there would be a card shop.
“Will this be all for you today?” the man asked, motioning to his two items sitting on the counter.
“I also have gas on pump one.” Kal said.
“Okay, that brings your total to $19.36.”
Kal took out of his pocket the oldest twenty dollar bill in creation. It was so fragile that he had to carry it in the corner for it to not fall apart. Kal had held that bill in his possession for as long as he could remember, and he had it in case of emergency.
Now his emergency fund has been depleted completely.
The man behind the counter gave Kal his change. “I wish you luck at the tournament,” he said.
“Thanks,” Kal said as he walked out to his bike.
…
Kal was back on the road again in no time, and he was sailing through the cool, night air at alarming speed.
No one was ever on the roads between cities, unless it was for transport of products from one major city to another. Or unless the police were after a fugitive.
Kal wasn’t worried about that though; he was just trying to stay focused on the road. He had two things on his mind that were taking all of his focus.
The first was about the tournament. He was so excited about such an opportunity; he hadn’t ever been in a tournament. He was in school, and then he went straight into the DFP. He didn’t even have time to graduate from Battle Academy, the renowned ‘duel school’ that all aspiring duelist go to learn from, because he was so good.
He was more excited about this tournament than anything else in his entire life.
The other thing on his mind was the strange events that happened during his duel in the alley. Had he actually levitated? Did he actually pick up a building with his mind? Was he actually going to drop the building on Dagoris’s head?
These questions were piling up in his head. He wanted to know how he tapped into this power, how he could control it, and most of all, where did it come from?
Kal was so confused and so happy that it was hard trying to define what mood he was in. And this was what was distracting him from the road.
But he did have to worry much longer. As he crested the top of another hill, at last the city of Succurro was in sight. It had many tall buildings, but the main focus was the building in the center of the city. It was taller than all of the surrounding buildings by a few stories at least. It was a regular, square shaped design until you go to the top, where the top floor was a circular shape. If you paid attention, you could see that the top floor moved very slowly in a clockwise direction. This way you could see the sunrise and the sunset from the same spot in your bedroom.
This building was the Palmarium, so the place where they were going to hold the tournament wasn’t that hard to find. If you get lost, just look up to find the giant, rotating, circular hotel room.
The sight of this building made Kal only get even more excited. Kal turned the throttle back and started his sprint toward the town.
…
Once inside the city, he drove through the lanes of busy traffic until he got to the Palmarium’s large parking garage across the street. He parked his bike in the most convenient place, and then walked up to the lobby.
‘I wonder if they will let me stay the next two days until the tournament….’ Kal thought to himself. If they didn’t, then he didn’t know what he was going to do until then.
He walked up to the front desk in awe. The building had a very tall ceiling, and everything was in the colors of crimson and gold. There were many gold pillars supporting the building in the lobby, but they also looked like graceful pieces of artwork.
He was still looking around when he finally stopped at the front desk. The clerk glanced at him for a moment, expecting him to say something as to the nature of his business, but after him just staring around like cat in a doghouse, she just left him to his business.
Soon the wait was too unnerving for her to handle, “Can I help you?” she asked.
Kal instantly snapped out of his trance, and he went back into the serious, business-like attitude like his usual self.
“Yes, I would like to find out if the rooms for the contestants in your tournament are ready.” Kal asked.
The woman looked at him for a moment, and then looked like she was thinking about something. Whatever it was, soon she had made a decision.
“You are a duelist?” she asked.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I am.” Kal said. He raised his duel disk for corroboration. The woman stood up to get a better look at the machine.
“Alright. Name?” she asked.
“Jean Amicus.”
She typed the name into a computer, and she frowned. “I’m sorry, but there is no one reserved for this tournament under that name.”
Just then the fax machine behind the clerk started buzzing. Soon a paper fell out onto a tray. The clerk picked it up and started reading.
“You have good timing; this is a fax from Bill Utilis stating that you are a competitor, and the final one to enter. Congratulations,” she said, trying to sound cordial.
“That is nice timing.” Kal agreed.
“The rooms are shared, two competitors to a room. I will place you in room 512, which is on the fifth floor,” she said, “the elevators are that way.”
She had pointed to her left, and Kal looked over to see a row of four sets of metal doors. The woman gave him a key, and soon Kal was on his way.
…
Kal made it to the fifth floor, and followed the signs to show him the way to 512.
When he got there, he heard noises behind the door. ‘Alright, I guess my roommate is already settled in…’ Kal thought.
Kal slide the key card into the slot and opened the door. When he walked inside, he saw a teenaged boy lying on the bed closest to the window. He had short, spiked blonde hair. He was wearing a white shirt and jeans, and was watching TV.
When Kal walked into the room he put the TV on mute, and he stood up off his bed.
“Hello, my name is Max Aufero.” He said, extending his hand out to shake.
“Hello, Max,” Kal said, “My name is Jean Amicus.”
“Pleased to meet you John.” He said.
“No, you have to put more of a ‘z’ sound on the J. It’s Jean, not John.” Kal said, smiling.
Max frowned a playful frown, “Oh alright, Zohn….”
The two laughed a bit. Kal knew that he was going to have a fun time at this tournament.
“So, how many tournaments have you been to?” Max asked, flopping back onto the bed.
“This will be my first.” Kal replied.
“Nice start, actually. It is pretty impressive to be starting out here at the Palmarium. But that makes the competition only stronger; you will have to bring your Z game.”
“Z game? What happened to A game?” Kal asked.
“Well, when you go up above A in the alphabet, you can only go up to Z…..” Max replied.
Kal chuckled a bit at that, “I guess that is true. How many have you been to?”
“This will be my eighth. This is all I have left now that I am out of Battle Academy.”
“You were in Battle Academy?” Kal asked, wondering if Max had ever seen him there. If he had he could pull the curtain on his ruse...
“Not to the Battle Academy, no. I went to Battle Academy II, over here in Succurro.”
“Oh,” Kal said, relieved.
“Yeah. But I haven’t ever won a tournament. I have gotten close several times, but I have never taken first. This will be my year though; this will be the year when Max Aufero is known!”
“That would be nice. I just hope that I don’t flunk out in the preliminaries…”
“Yeah, I hope that doesn’t happen to me either...” Max agreed.
Then they sat in silence for a while. Kal went to unpack his things into his dresser that was provided. It was pretty easy, since he only had two other sets of clothes with him.
Kal laid down on his bed, ready for sleep, but he wanted to know more about Max. Just one more thing…
He turned to face Max, who had since turned on the sound of the television and had started watching it again.
“What kind of deck do you have?” Kal asked.
Max turned and looked at him; on his face was a look of anxiousness.
“I thought you would never ask!” he said, and he sprung up off his bed and darted for his duel disk.
“I duel with these,” he said as he fanned out his cards to Kal, “They are called the ‘Deserter Knights.’”
“What do they do?” Kal asked, intrigued.
Max’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, “They remove themselves from play, and then they come back later to activate their effects. Look at this one,” Max said as he pulled one out of the stack of cards.
It was a night, of course, with black hair and dark armor. The name read ‘Deserter Knight – the Wanderer.’
“This guy can either inflict damage to your opponent, or destroy a card on the field when he comes back.” Max said.
“That’s cool.” Kal said. And it really was. He had never heard of anything like these Knights. He had heard of cards that remove cards from play, but these guys do it to themselves!
“Yep, I think so too. What do you duel with?”
Kal reached over to his deck and showed them to his new friend.
“I duel with Ally Monsters.” Kal said.
“I never heard of them. What do they do?”
“They stack on top of each other, and they swarm the field with their many effects. They are quite fun to duel with.” Kal replied.
“I am sure they are. Well, I wish you the best of luck with that deck, but right now I would like to get some sleep, how ‘bout you?”
“Sounds good to me.” Kal replied.
_____
For once Kal slept with no dreams. It was quite a nice break from having the same dreams every night…
Kal walked down to breakfast that morning. He ate in silence without his roommate. H slept in too long for Kal to wait for him.
Kal took the day to walk around the city, not bothering to hide from view. He bent over to pick up a nice rock he saw when his shoulder started hurting. It was the shoulder that had the dart in it. Kal had taken it out before he walked out of the parking garage, and he tossed it in the nearest trash can he saw. His shoulder has hurt ever since.
He decided he didn’t like the rock, so he dropped it anyway.
He continued his walk, and he didn’t return to the hotel until nightfall.
_____
By the day of the tournament Kal was bored out of his mind. Max had gone somewhere the day of Kal’s walk, so he was just left with an empty room with no one to talk too.
Sure Kal had TV, but the daily drama shows only annoyed him. So Kal was left with either sleeping, or building a better deck. Kal choose the latter, and he had even gone to the Card Shop. He traded some of his unneeded cards for some that he thought would help, and soon he had built the best deck he had ever had.
But now, he was bored out of his mind.
Kal checked his watch. ‘9:00,’ Kal thought, ‘duels start at 10:00, so I have an hour to kill…’
Kal had already eaten breakfast, and had already gotten his duel disk ready. He decided to just sit in the cafeteria until 10:00.
…
It was finally 10:00, and soon all of the competitors and spectators were walking into the seventh floor. This floor was just one big empty space, so it was perfect for dueling in. The Palmarium Staff had set up a series of bleachers around the middle of the area, the space where everyone would duel.
The special thing about the floor was that it was very thick, clear material. It wasn’t glass. That could break too easily. But this material was clear enough so that the people on the next floor down could see the duelists as well. They were not going to sum out of seating room.
The first round was going to start in a matter of moments.
A man in a black suit and tie walked into the middle of the clear floor and started talking into a microphone.
“Are you ready to see some duel action!?” the announcer asked with almost too much enthusiasm.
The crowed cheered and screamed their approval.
“Well let’s not prolong the fun any longer! In the first duel, the competitors will be: Shairalia Blonevech vs. Jean Amicus!” the announcer said.
A Russian man stood up in the crowd. He looked at his side and said something, but not to anyone that Kal could see.
‘Great, I’m going first… how’d that happen?’ Kal thought.
Kal stood up as well, and they both walked into the middle of the room.
“Alright guys, I want a fair match between the both of you. Now, Duel!” the announcer said, and he backed away from the pair.
“You ready for this, my friend?” Shairalia asked, but not to Kal. He seemed to be talking to himself.
‘Great, I go first, and I get to duel a nut job…’ Kal thought.
“Duel!” they both said, and they drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 8000
“I shall start,” Shairalia said, and drew his next card.
“Alright, I summon Arctic Diver, in attack mode!” he said.
The card flipped face up, and a blue, slender creature appeared. ATK: 1700/ LV: 4
“Now for his Special Ability! By placing an Ice Counter on this card, I can place one level for Ice Crystal monster on the top of my deck! And I choose The Frostbitten Knight!”
Shairalia placed the card from his deck onto the top.
“And then I will place one card face down and end my turn.”
Kal drew his card in silence. He knew that the facedown card was a trap, so he had to get rid of it.
“Let’s MST your facedown!” Kal said, activating the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon.
The card flipped up, and tornado appeared above Shairalia’s face down card. The card broke into a thousand shards to be revealed as dimensional prison.
“Alright, let the fun begin! I will Normal Summon my Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and two identical yet opposite fiends with one wing each appeared. One was black, and one was white. The black one stepped forward, leaving the white fiend one step behind. ATK: 1500/ LV: 4
“Ha! He can’t beat my Diver! See, what did I tell you?” Shairalia asked no one in particular. Kal was getting unnerved by this behavior. What was he trying to do?
“I will now activate his Special Ability! Buy discarding one card, I am able to change his attribute to LIGHT, and when that happens he gains 300 attack points!” Kal said.
The black fiend took a step back, and the white one took its place in front. ATK: 1800
“Now, attack his arctic diver now!” Kal said.
The white fiend leapt into the air, and slashed his wing down upon the slender creature on Shairalia’s side of the field.
The monster was gone in a matter of moments, broken into a thousand shards.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 7900
“I get to draw a card now from my monster’s ability. Now I will place one card face down and end my turn. And now my creature’s attribute turns back to DARK.” Kal said.
The black fiend took his post again. ATK: 1500
Shairalia drew his next card.
“Hey, do you remember the card I discarded? It just happens to be that it is my Legion’s Chained Daemon, and he takes 500 Life Points away from you during your Standby Phase!” Kal interjected.
A chain shot out of the graveyard slot of Kal’s duel disk and wrapped itself around Shairalia’s throat.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 7400
“Alright, time to destroy your creature! I summon The Frostbitten Knight, in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and a strong man in furs appeared. ATK: 2000/LV: 4
“What!? A 2000 attack monster??” Kal exclaimed.
“Indeed, now attack his Attack Power!” Shairalia said.
“Well, here’s time for my monster’s ability. When he is selected as an attack target, he can change to defense position.” Kal said, “It won’t save him, but it will save my Life Points.”
The fiend turned into a defensive stance, and was soon destroyed by the strong man in the fur.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 7400
“I end my turn.”
Kal drew his card, but then something happened with the Frostbitten Knight. He lost 100 attack points.
“Huh?” Kal exclaimed.
“Tis the cost of keeping him on the field. During each Standby Phase he loses 100 attack points.” Shairalia stated.
“Alright…” Kal said, “I will activate my face down, Legion’s Magma Stone, Standlach! Now he is a trap monster, so I get to Special Summon him to the field!”
Kal flipped the trap, and then placed it on the field in attack position.
A big heap of red, glowing rock appeared, and it looked angry. ATK: 1400/LV: 5
Now to activate his special ability. I can Special Summon one level 3 Ally monster from my hand to the top of his stack! So I Summon my Legion’s Warrior in attack mode!”
A warrior in black, ragged clothing appeared. He had a long dagger as his weapon. ATK: 1300/ LV: 3
“And my Standlach as another Special Ability, it gives the Special Summoned monster a 700 attack boost!”
The dagger grew larger, into a sword. ATK: 2000.
“Now, Warrior gains the abilities of all the monsters below it, so I can Special Summon another level 3 Ally Monster to the top of the Stack, and he too will get a power boost. So now I will summon Legion’s Samurai!”
The familiar black armored samurai with the long staff appeared; ready to fight in front of the warrior and the magma rock. ATK: 1500 --> 2200/ LV: 3
“Now for my Samurai’s special ability! I can tribute my warrior to destroy a monster you control!”
The warrior disappeared into a dark purple light, and the light was attracted to the Samurai’s staff. The Staff glowed deep purple, and the Samurai flung the light off of the staff and straight into Shairalia’s Monster. The monster was destroyed as well.
“Now, I can attack you directly!” Kal said, and the Samurai walked forward with this staff ready. He sliced right through Shairalia, taking 2200 points out of him.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 5200
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
To be continued…
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 5200
“Oh no, He has gotten the upper hand! But we can take ‘im!” Shairalia said, again to himself.
Kal looked at the deranged man through his long, black hair that was in his face. He had a long, scraggly beard, and a matching head of hair. There were traces in it of grey, but he didn’t look old. He seemed…tired. But underneath the hair and fur he wore were his eyes. Those green eyes were filled with innocence, innocence from ignorance. Something about this man Shairalia just seemed…pure.
“Draw!” Shairalia stated his move.
“You lose another 500; do to my Chained Daemon’s effect!” Kal said.
A chain sprung out of the graveyard and whacked Shairalia on the head.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 4700
“Alright, let’s activate the Spell Card Bonding Ice Crystals! This allows me to Remove from play fusion material monsters on a fusion Ice Crystal Monster to fusion summon him! So I remove my two fallen Ice Crystal Monsters, Arctic Driver and Frost Bitten Knight, to Special Summon my Ice Shard Dragon!!”
The Spell Card flipped up and flashed for a moment; a vortex opened up in the sky above Shairalia’s head. Ghostly forms of the two fallen Ice Crystals, the slender blue creature and the strong man in furs, came out of the clear ground and floated into the vortex.
Then the Spell Card and the vortex disappeared. In its place appeared a ferocious, blue serpent dragon. ATK: 2600/ LV: 8
“But I am not done! Now I activate the Spell Melting the Seal! This lets me add those two removed Ice Crystals back into my Deck!”
The card flipped up and glowed, then disappeared. Shairalia took his two monsters and shuffled them into his deck.
“Ice Shard Dragon, attack his Legion’s Samurai now!”
The dragon raised its head and released an ice cold blast of air toward the Samurai. The Samurai tried his best to fight it off and stay where he was, but to no avail. He burst into a thousand shards.
Kal: 7600
Shairalia: 4700
“Now the effect of my Standlach activates! When the monster in the Vector above him is destroyed, you take 500 points of damage!” Kal interjected.
The giant red stone raised his fist and released a beam of red energy toward Shairalia.
Kal: 7600
Shairalia: 4200
“Fine! I will place one card facedown, then I will summon Snowstorm Phantom in attack mode!”
A ghostly white figure appeared after the card flipped up. ATK: 750 / LV: 3
“This ‘freezes’ your Graveyard. I am allowed to place one Ice Counter on your Graveyard, and as long as this monster is on the field you can’t activate effects that involve your Graveyard!” Shairalia said, “I end my turn.”
‘Drat, that means I can’t activate Standlach’s last effect to get a monster back.’ Kal said.
Kal drew his card in silence. He had to figure out something to do…
“I Stack my Legion’s Elf Priestess on top of Standlach!”
An elf in green clothing appeared in front of the glowing, red giant. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“Now I can activate her ability! I can tribute my Standlach to destroy your facedown card!” Kal said.
The Glowing giant slowly evaporated into a red energy. The energy was attracted to the elf’s raised arm, and her arm started to glow red as well. She pointed her arm straight in the air and released the energy. A beam of light came straight down upon the face down card. The card broke into a thousand shards.
“No! My Trap Card Stealthy Takedown would have destroyed your monster!” Shairalia said in protest.
“Not anymore, it wont.” Kal said, “Now I can activate my Spell Card called Reinforcement of the Allies! This allows me to add an Ally monster to my hand from my deck. Then I can activate a second effect: if I pay 1000 Life Points I can Special Summon that monster I just added!”
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 4200
“I chose to summon my Legion’s Samurai to the top of the Stack with my Elf!”
The card flipped up behind the Elf Sorceress and it left behind a warrior in black armor. He had a sharp ended staff as his weapon. ATK: 1500 / LV: 3
“Now I release my Elf to destroy your Ice Shard Dragon!” Kal said.
The Elf transformed into a green mist of energy, which was then attracted to the Samurai’s staff. His staff then started to glow green. The Samurai flung his weapon at the Dragon, releasing an orb of green energy which broke it into a thousand shards.
“And now I can attack your Snowstorm Phantom with my Samurai!”
The Samurai walked up to the white, ghostly form and sliced his sharp staff right through it. It was destroyed into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 3450
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
“That Jean Amicus is something!” A kid in the crowd said to his friend. “Shairalia fused a pretty powerful monster, and even froze Jean’s Graveyard. But he still came back and obliterated Shairalia’s field during his next turn! And all with monsters that have less than 2000 ATK points!”
“But he did it with a price.” The friend replied, “Jean now has no cards left in his hand, and only a 1500 ATK monster on his field to protect him. He may be winning in Life Points, but he doesn’t have any hand advantage, or field support. If he loses that Samurai he is going to need one heck of a draw.”
‘Thanks for reminding me, guys.’ Kal thought miserably. He had indeed made a gamble, one that he hoped he would win.
“Draw!” Shairalia said.
A chain came out of Kal’s Graveyard once more, choking another 500 points away.
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 2950
“I summon my Isis – the Ice Dragon Sorceress!”
A woman in blue clothing appeared. ATK: 1500 / LV: 4
“When she is summoned, I can add a Dragon / Ice Crystal to my hand from my Deck, so I choose my Ice Cap Dragon!” Shairalia added the card from his deck to his hand, and then he shuffled his deck.
Since my monster has the same ATK as yours, it would be stupid of me to destroy both and leave me with nothing. So I end my turn.”
‘At least I kept my monster… so now what luck do I have this turn…?’ Kal thought.
Kal was about to draw his card, but when he touched his Deck he hesitated. His eyes glowed blue for a moment, but no one seemed to notice. Kal seemed to hear a voice in the back of his mind…
‘Your victory will come next turn; all you have to do is have faith in your cards….’ The voice said.
‘Next turn? I can win this next turn…?’ Kal thought. He continued to his Draw Phase, which he conducted in silence.
What he drew amazed him. He might win after all!
“I set one card face down, and then I end my turn.” He said.
Murmurs were heard through the crowd.
“…what do you suppose that is?...”
“…do you think Jean has given up?...”
“…he smiled; it must be something good…”
“…Jean has something up his sleeve after all!...”
‘You just wait and see,’ Kal thought.
“Draw!” Shairalia said.
Again, the chain appeared. This time it decided to thwump Shairalia on the head to inflict its 500 damage.
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 2450
“I sacrifice my Isis, in order to summon my Ice Shard Vampire!”
Wind whipped around the woman in blue, and then she disappeared. In her place was a blue vampire, ready for the kill. ATK: 2100 / LV: 5
All of a sudden, Ice Shard Vampire’s ATK increased. ATK: 2100 ~ 2200.
“Whaaa…??” Kal asked, confused.
“Ice Shard Vampire gains 100 ATK points for each Ice Crystal Monster there is on the field.” He said as a reply, “And now I remove from play the three monsters currently in my Graveyard to Special Summon my Demon Samurai of the Tundra!”
The ghostly forms of the Ice Shard Dragon, the Dragon Sorceress, and the Snowstorm Phantom appeared and disappeared into a vortex. Then a grey armored Samurai that rivaled the look of the Legion’s Samurai appeared on Shairalia’s side of the field. ATK: 0 / LV: 8
“And my Samurai gains Ice Counters for each card he removed from play for his summoning, so he gets three counters! And then he gets 700 ATK points for each counter!”
He flexed his muscles, but from under all the metal armor you couldn’t tell that there was a difference. ATK: 0 ~ 2100.
“And now that there is another Ice Crystal monster on my field, Ice Shard Vampire’s ATK is increased once more!”
Ice Shard Vampire: ATK: 2200 ~ 2300.
“Now, attack his Legion’s Samurai now, my vampire!” Shairalia commanded.
The Vampire ran toward the Samurai, then punched him with such a force that before he doubled over he was in a thousand shards.
Kal: 5800
Shairalia: 2450
“You activated my trap! Go, Call of the Allies!” Kal interjected.
The facedown card flipped up, revealing a Trap.
“What does it do?” Shairalia asked.
“When a monster of mine is destroyed, I am able to Special Summon monsters from my deck whose combined levels match the destroyed monsters level. This means that I am allowed to Special Summon monsters whose levels together add up to three, since my Samurai that you just destroyed is a level three. That means that I am allowed to summon my Legion’s Counter Daemon and my Legion’s Blocker Daemon!” Kal explained.
He fished out the two monsters and Summoned them together in the same Stack, the Counter Daemon on the bottom and the Blocker Daemon on the top.
Two Skeleton figures appeared, one with a vertical faced body much like a human’s, the other with a horizontal faced body like a dog’s. The dog-shaped skeleton was in front of the human skeleton.
Legion’s Blocker Daemon: ATK: 0 / LV: 1
Legion’s Counter Daemon: ATK: 0 / LV: 2
“Okay, my Samurai can take care of him! Attack his Blocker Daemon now!”
“You can’t.” Kal said.
“Why not?” Shairalia asked. His samurai wouldn’t move anyway.
“The effect of my Counter Daemon. The monster on the top of the Stack cannot be selected as an attack target while he is on the bottom of the stack, so neither of them can be touched.” Kal explained.
Shairalia looked unnerved.
“Fine, I end my turn.”
Kal touched the top of his deck only to hesitate once more. His eyes flashed blue again, and no one seemed to notice. At least no one said anything.
Kal heard the voice in his head once more; it seemed to him to be his own.
‘Victory is yours. Just play this card correctly and you win…’ the voice said.
‘Is this a premonition?’ Kal wondered.
Kal drew his card, and he saw just what he hoped for, a key to time itself.
“I summon my Legion’s Time Keeper in attack mode!” Kal said.
A woman in blue armor appeared holding a saber in one hand, and a clock in the other. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4
“Now my monster gains one Ally Counter from the summon of an Ally Monster, namely herself.
The clock hand turned forward to ‘1 o’clock.’
“Now I activate the effect of my Counter Daemon! I can pay Life Points in increments of 300 to add one Ally Counter to a monster, like my Time Keeper. So I pay 2400 Life Points to add 8 counters to her!” Kal said.
Kal’s Life Points reduced, and at the same time the hands moved forward on the clock to the ‘9 o’clock’ position.
Kal: 3400
Shairalia: 2450
“Now I can activate the effect of my Time Keeper! She has been keeping record of the duel this entire time and she can rewind it at a moment’s notice! By removing 3 Ally Counters from her I am allowed to Special Summon one Ally Monster from the Graveyard, by removing 9 I can Summon 3 Allies. So I remove all nine counters to Special Summon my Legion’s Warrior and my two Legion’s Samurais!”
The clock glowed blue-green and both the minute hand and the hour hand started to spin in opposite directions. They were spinning so fast that all you saw was a blur. She raised the clock into the air and at that moment both the hands stopped at the ‘12 o’clock’ position. Then a beam of white light shot straight into the air, symbolizing the fact that the magic had started. From the ground rose two symmetric warriors in black armor brandishing their weapons, and a warrior in ragged black clothing with a small dagger.
Legion’s Samurai: ATK: 1500 / LV: 3
Legion’s Samurai: ATK: 1500 / LV: 3
Legion’s Warrior: ATK: 1300 / LV: 3
One of the Samurai’s appeared in front of the two Daemons, the other Samurai and the Warrior appeared next to them in their own Stack. The Time Keeper put her clock down. She was in a Zone by herself.
“Alright, you know the effect of my Samurais by now, I should hope. By releasing my Warrior for Samurai #1 and my Blocker Daemon for Samurai #2 I can destroy both of your monsters.” Kal explained.
The Warrior evaporated into a black light and the Blocker Daemon evaporated into a purple light.
Both of the auras of light were attracted to the respective staffs of the two Samurais. In prefect formation the two monsters flung their glowing staffs at the two monsters on the opposite field, releasing two orbs of pulsing energy. Both of the Ice Crystals were destroyed, and they fell into a thousand shards.
“Now I can attack you with my Time Keeper and my two Samurais.” Kal said.
The three monsters walked forward and sliced their weapons down upon him at the same moment, wiping out all the rest of their life points.
Kal: 3400
Shairalia: 0
The crowd started cheering the victory, some even gave standing ovations. All Kal could think about at this moment was, ‘That was too close there… If I had lost... this adventure would have been pointless. Is this what I really want?’
“And the winner of Duel 1 is… JEAN AMICUS!” the announcer stated. The crowd cheered even louder for their approbation.
“We will have a ten minute break before the next Duel!” the announcer stated. Kal was about to find a chair to sit in when the announcer came toward him.
“That was one heck of an ending. When Shairalia summoned those two creatures I thought you were done for!” he said.
“Gee thanks...” Kal said.
The announcer laughed. “Hey, I just wanted to say congratulations for your impressive win.” He extended his hand.
Kal took it and they shook hands for a moment.
“What is your name?” Kal asked.
“Roland.” He replied.
“Roland? Like one of Kaiba’s suits?” Kal wondered.
“Not anymore. After Mr. Kaiba lost to Yugi that last time he went ballistic and fired almost all of his staff. I was lucky to be hired again by Mr. Pegasus at Industrial Illusions.”
“Pegasus? Like the creator of Duel Monsters, Pegasus?”
“Yes, didn’t you know that he was hosting this tournament?” Roland asked.
“No, I guess I didn’t. Why isn’t this being hosted in Domino, like Battle City?”
“Because Mr. Pegasus stayed here at the Palmarium once and decided he loved the architecture. He decided to throw a tournament in it.” Roland said.
Kal laughed. Good old eccentric Pegasus.
Roland looked down at his watch. “Well, the time is almost up now. Best give everyone a heads up that it’s time to come back.” And with that he walked off.
Kal was at last free to sit down in the closest chair he could find. He put his head in his hands and slid his fingers through his long, black hair.
‘Is this what I really want to be doing?’ he wondered. ‘I am going to need to tweak this deck if I want to win further rounds… that was too close of a duel.’
His thought was cut short when he felt that he was being stared at. He raised his head to look around, and across the arena was a woman. She seemed to be around the same age as Kal, 18 or maybe 20, and she had short red hair. She also had a soft, beautiful face.
It would have been more beautiful if it didn’t have a scowl on it. She was glaring at Kal, like he had done something bad to her. No, like he was an abomination.
‘I know who you are,’ rang a voice through his head. Kal almost jumped out of his skin. He turned and looked for who made the noise, but found no one.
He turned around to face the short, red haired person again, but there was no one there.
“What just happened…?” Kal wondered aloud. He sat back down.
He heard Roland announce that the time was up and that the break was over. People started returning to their seats. Kal could see the people on the next floor down giving him thumbs up signs.
“Well, Duel 1 was exciting, was it not?” Roland asked the crowd.
“Yeah!” the crowd agreed.
“Let’s see how the next duel fairs! Duel two is between Shylish Mastero and Derek Seffman!”
A tall, slender boy with brown hair stood up out of the crowd. So did a short man with thinning hair.
Each one stood on opposite ends of the court and raised their duel disks.
“Duel!” each one said, and they each drew five cards.
Kal didn’t pay much attention to the duel, his mind was too preoccupied. He did notice that the slender boy with brown hair was Shylish, and the short man with thinning hair was Derek. Shylish dueled with an unusual set of ‘Music’ monsters, and Derek was dueling with an ordinary Insect Swarm deck.
‘Is this what I really want to do?’ Kal wondered again.
Kal’s mind told him that this was a great opportunity, and that he barely got in. He was the last to get in, as a matter of fact. And he even got in for free! He shouldn’t waste the opportunity.
But his heart told him the opposite. He could possibly do the thing he wanted to do the most if he was stuck here at a tournament. He should leave, and go find Joel Karne.
Joel Karne is the biggest crime boss from Aequitas, and was the only person that had beaten Kal when he was at his A game. Because of that victory, he was allowed to go free for the night and no one had found him since. This affected his work, and made him lose every duel afterward. Even losing to duelists with the weakest decks Kal had ever seen. Because of this he was fired from his job.
All Kal desired in this world was to find Joel Karne and put him to justice. He could possibly get his job back too.
Part of him needed to find Karne. He needed to prove that he can win against all odds, and that he wouldn’t lose to anyone.
So Joel Karne was on the edge of justice. The justice to be brought to him, and his freedom.
And Kal was on the edge of justice as well. On the edge of doing what is right, and total revenge.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 5200
“Oh no, He has gotten the upper hand! But we can take ‘im!” Shairalia said, again to himself.
Kal looked at the deranged man through his long, black hair that was in his face. He had a long, scraggly beard, and a matching head of hair. There were traces in it of grey, but he didn’t look old. He seemed…tired. But underneath the hair and fur he wore were his eyes. Those green eyes were filled with innocence, innocence from ignorance. Something about this man Shairalia just seemed…pure.
“Draw!” Shairalia stated his move.
“You lose another 500; do to my Chained Daemon’s effect!” Kal said.
A chain sprung out of the graveyard and whacked Shairalia on the head.
Kal: 8000
Shairalia: 4700
“Alright, let’s activate the Spell Card Bonding Ice Crystals! This allows me to Remove from play fusion material monsters on a fusion Ice Crystal Monster to fusion summon him! So I remove my two fallen Ice Crystal Monsters, Arctic Driver and Frost Bitten Knight, to Special Summon my Ice Shard Dragon!!”
The Spell Card flipped up and flashed for a moment; a vortex opened up in the sky above Shairalia’s head. Ghostly forms of the two fallen Ice Crystals, the slender blue creature and the strong man in furs, came out of the clear ground and floated into the vortex.
Then the Spell Card and the vortex disappeared. In its place appeared a ferocious, blue serpent dragon. ATK: 2600/ LV: 8
“But I am not done! Now I activate the Spell Melting the Seal! This lets me add those two removed Ice Crystals back into my Deck!”
The card flipped up and glowed, then disappeared. Shairalia took his two monsters and shuffled them into his deck.
“Ice Shard Dragon, attack his Legion’s Samurai now!”
The dragon raised its head and released an ice cold blast of air toward the Samurai. The Samurai tried his best to fight it off and stay where he was, but to no avail. He burst into a thousand shards.
Kal: 7600
Shairalia: 4700
“Now the effect of my Standlach activates! When the monster in the Vector above him is destroyed, you take 500 points of damage!” Kal interjected.
The giant red stone raised his fist and released a beam of red energy toward Shairalia.
Kal: 7600
Shairalia: 4200
“Fine! I will place one card facedown, then I will summon Snowstorm Phantom in attack mode!”
A ghostly white figure appeared after the card flipped up. ATK: 750 / LV: 3
“This ‘freezes’ your Graveyard. I am allowed to place one Ice Counter on your Graveyard, and as long as this monster is on the field you can’t activate effects that involve your Graveyard!” Shairalia said, “I end my turn.”
‘Drat, that means I can’t activate Standlach’s last effect to get a monster back.’ Kal said.
Kal drew his card in silence. He had to figure out something to do…
“I Stack my Legion’s Elf Priestess on top of Standlach!”
An elf in green clothing appeared in front of the glowing, red giant. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“Now I can activate her ability! I can tribute my Standlach to destroy your facedown card!” Kal said.
The Glowing giant slowly evaporated into a red energy. The energy was attracted to the elf’s raised arm, and her arm started to glow red as well. She pointed her arm straight in the air and released the energy. A beam of light came straight down upon the face down card. The card broke into a thousand shards.
“No! My Trap Card Stealthy Takedown would have destroyed your monster!” Shairalia said in protest.
“Not anymore, it wont.” Kal said, “Now I can activate my Spell Card called Reinforcement of the Allies! This allows me to add an Ally monster to my hand from my deck. Then I can activate a second effect: if I pay 1000 Life Points I can Special Summon that monster I just added!”
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 4200
“I chose to summon my Legion’s Samurai to the top of the Stack with my Elf!”
The card flipped up behind the Elf Sorceress and it left behind a warrior in black armor. He had a sharp ended staff as his weapon. ATK: 1500 / LV: 3
“Now I release my Elf to destroy your Ice Shard Dragon!” Kal said.
The Elf transformed into a green mist of energy, which was then attracted to the Samurai’s staff. His staff then started to glow green. The Samurai flung his weapon at the Dragon, releasing an orb of green energy which broke it into a thousand shards.
“And now I can attack your Snowstorm Phantom with my Samurai!”
The Samurai walked up to the white, ghostly form and sliced his sharp staff right through it. It was destroyed into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 3450
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
“That Jean Amicus is something!” A kid in the crowd said to his friend. “Shairalia fused a pretty powerful monster, and even froze Jean’s Graveyard. But he still came back and obliterated Shairalia’s field during his next turn! And all with monsters that have less than 2000 ATK points!”
“But he did it with a price.” The friend replied, “Jean now has no cards left in his hand, and only a 1500 ATK monster on his field to protect him. He may be winning in Life Points, but he doesn’t have any hand advantage, or field support. If he loses that Samurai he is going to need one heck of a draw.”
‘Thanks for reminding me, guys.’ Kal thought miserably. He had indeed made a gamble, one that he hoped he would win.
“Draw!” Shairalia said.
A chain came out of Kal’s Graveyard once more, choking another 500 points away.
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 2950
“I summon my Isis – the Ice Dragon Sorceress!”
A woman in blue clothing appeared. ATK: 1500 / LV: 4
“When she is summoned, I can add a Dragon / Ice Crystal to my hand from my Deck, so I choose my Ice Cap Dragon!” Shairalia added the card from his deck to his hand, and then he shuffled his deck.
Since my monster has the same ATK as yours, it would be stupid of me to destroy both and leave me with nothing. So I end my turn.”
‘At least I kept my monster… so now what luck do I have this turn…?’ Kal thought.
Kal was about to draw his card, but when he touched his Deck he hesitated. His eyes glowed blue for a moment, but no one seemed to notice. Kal seemed to hear a voice in the back of his mind…
‘Your victory will come next turn; all you have to do is have faith in your cards….’ The voice said.
‘Next turn? I can win this next turn…?’ Kal thought. He continued to his Draw Phase, which he conducted in silence.
What he drew amazed him. He might win after all!
“I set one card face down, and then I end my turn.” He said.
Murmurs were heard through the crowd.
“…what do you suppose that is?...”
“…do you think Jean has given up?...”
“…he smiled; it must be something good…”
“…Jean has something up his sleeve after all!...”
‘You just wait and see,’ Kal thought.
“Draw!” Shairalia said.
Again, the chain appeared. This time it decided to thwump Shairalia on the head to inflict its 500 damage.
Kal: 6600
Shairalia: 2450
“I sacrifice my Isis, in order to summon my Ice Shard Vampire!”
Wind whipped around the woman in blue, and then she disappeared. In her place was a blue vampire, ready for the kill. ATK: 2100 / LV: 5
All of a sudden, Ice Shard Vampire’s ATK increased. ATK: 2100 ~ 2200.
“Whaaa…??” Kal asked, confused.
“Ice Shard Vampire gains 100 ATK points for each Ice Crystal Monster there is on the field.” He said as a reply, “And now I remove from play the three monsters currently in my Graveyard to Special Summon my Demon Samurai of the Tundra!”
The ghostly forms of the Ice Shard Dragon, the Dragon Sorceress, and the Snowstorm Phantom appeared and disappeared into a vortex. Then a grey armored Samurai that rivaled the look of the Legion’s Samurai appeared on Shairalia’s side of the field. ATK: 0 / LV: 8
“And my Samurai gains Ice Counters for each card he removed from play for his summoning, so he gets three counters! And then he gets 700 ATK points for each counter!”
He flexed his muscles, but from under all the metal armor you couldn’t tell that there was a difference. ATK: 0 ~ 2100.
“And now that there is another Ice Crystal monster on my field, Ice Shard Vampire’s ATK is increased once more!”
Ice Shard Vampire: ATK: 2200 ~ 2300.
“Now, attack his Legion’s Samurai now, my vampire!” Shairalia commanded.
The Vampire ran toward the Samurai, then punched him with such a force that before he doubled over he was in a thousand shards.
Kal: 5800
Shairalia: 2450
“You activated my trap! Go, Call of the Allies!” Kal interjected.
The facedown card flipped up, revealing a Trap.
“What does it do?” Shairalia asked.
“When a monster of mine is destroyed, I am able to Special Summon monsters from my deck whose combined levels match the destroyed monsters level. This means that I am allowed to Special Summon monsters whose levels together add up to three, since my Samurai that you just destroyed is a level three. That means that I am allowed to summon my Legion’s Counter Daemon and my Legion’s Blocker Daemon!” Kal explained.
He fished out the two monsters and Summoned them together in the same Stack, the Counter Daemon on the bottom and the Blocker Daemon on the top.
Two Skeleton figures appeared, one with a vertical faced body much like a human’s, the other with a horizontal faced body like a dog’s. The dog-shaped skeleton was in front of the human skeleton.
Legion’s Blocker Daemon: ATK: 0 / LV: 1
Legion’s Counter Daemon: ATK: 0 / LV: 2
“Okay, my Samurai can take care of him! Attack his Blocker Daemon now!”
“You can’t.” Kal said.
“Why not?” Shairalia asked. His samurai wouldn’t move anyway.
“The effect of my Counter Daemon. The monster on the top of the Stack cannot be selected as an attack target while he is on the bottom of the stack, so neither of them can be touched.” Kal explained.
Shairalia looked unnerved.
“Fine, I end my turn.”
Kal touched the top of his deck only to hesitate once more. His eyes flashed blue again, and no one seemed to notice. At least no one said anything.
Kal heard the voice in his head once more; it seemed to him to be his own.
‘Victory is yours. Just play this card correctly and you win…’ the voice said.
‘Is this a premonition?’ Kal wondered.
Kal drew his card, and he saw just what he hoped for, a key to time itself.
“I summon my Legion’s Time Keeper in attack mode!” Kal said.
A woman in blue armor appeared holding a saber in one hand, and a clock in the other. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4
“Now my monster gains one Ally Counter from the summon of an Ally Monster, namely herself.
The clock hand turned forward to ‘1 o’clock.’
“Now I activate the effect of my Counter Daemon! I can pay Life Points in increments of 300 to add one Ally Counter to a monster, like my Time Keeper. So I pay 2400 Life Points to add 8 counters to her!” Kal said.
Kal’s Life Points reduced, and at the same time the hands moved forward on the clock to the ‘9 o’clock’ position.
Kal: 3400
Shairalia: 2450
“Now I can activate the effect of my Time Keeper! She has been keeping record of the duel this entire time and she can rewind it at a moment’s notice! By removing 3 Ally Counters from her I am allowed to Special Summon one Ally Monster from the Graveyard, by removing 9 I can Summon 3 Allies. So I remove all nine counters to Special Summon my Legion’s Warrior and my two Legion’s Samurais!”
The clock glowed blue-green and both the minute hand and the hour hand started to spin in opposite directions. They were spinning so fast that all you saw was a blur. She raised the clock into the air and at that moment both the hands stopped at the ‘12 o’clock’ position. Then a beam of white light shot straight into the air, symbolizing the fact that the magic had started. From the ground rose two symmetric warriors in black armor brandishing their weapons, and a warrior in ragged black clothing with a small dagger.
Legion’s Samurai: ATK: 1500 / LV: 3
Legion’s Samurai: ATK: 1500 / LV: 3
Legion’s Warrior: ATK: 1300 / LV: 3
One of the Samurai’s appeared in front of the two Daemons, the other Samurai and the Warrior appeared next to them in their own Stack. The Time Keeper put her clock down. She was in a Zone by herself.
“Alright, you know the effect of my Samurais by now, I should hope. By releasing my Warrior for Samurai #1 and my Blocker Daemon for Samurai #2 I can destroy both of your monsters.” Kal explained.
The Warrior evaporated into a black light and the Blocker Daemon evaporated into a purple light.
Both of the auras of light were attracted to the respective staffs of the two Samurais. In prefect formation the two monsters flung their glowing staffs at the two monsters on the opposite field, releasing two orbs of pulsing energy. Both of the Ice Crystals were destroyed, and they fell into a thousand shards.
“Now I can attack you with my Time Keeper and my two Samurais.” Kal said.
The three monsters walked forward and sliced their weapons down upon him at the same moment, wiping out all the rest of their life points.
Kal: 3400
Shairalia: 0
The crowd started cheering the victory, some even gave standing ovations. All Kal could think about at this moment was, ‘That was too close there… If I had lost... this adventure would have been pointless. Is this what I really want?’
“And the winner of Duel 1 is… JEAN AMICUS!” the announcer stated. The crowd cheered even louder for their approbation.
“We will have a ten minute break before the next Duel!” the announcer stated. Kal was about to find a chair to sit in when the announcer came toward him.
“That was one heck of an ending. When Shairalia summoned those two creatures I thought you were done for!” he said.
“Gee thanks...” Kal said.
The announcer laughed. “Hey, I just wanted to say congratulations for your impressive win.” He extended his hand.
Kal took it and they shook hands for a moment.
“What is your name?” Kal asked.
“Roland.” He replied.
“Roland? Like one of Kaiba’s suits?” Kal wondered.
“Not anymore. After Mr. Kaiba lost to Yugi that last time he went ballistic and fired almost all of his staff. I was lucky to be hired again by Mr. Pegasus at Industrial Illusions.”
“Pegasus? Like the creator of Duel Monsters, Pegasus?”
“Yes, didn’t you know that he was hosting this tournament?” Roland asked.
“No, I guess I didn’t. Why isn’t this being hosted in Domino, like Battle City?”
“Because Mr. Pegasus stayed here at the Palmarium once and decided he loved the architecture. He decided to throw a tournament in it.” Roland said.
Kal laughed. Good old eccentric Pegasus.
Roland looked down at his watch. “Well, the time is almost up now. Best give everyone a heads up that it’s time to come back.” And with that he walked off.
Kal was at last free to sit down in the closest chair he could find. He put his head in his hands and slid his fingers through his long, black hair.
‘Is this what I really want to be doing?’ he wondered. ‘I am going to need to tweak this deck if I want to win further rounds… that was too close of a duel.’
His thought was cut short when he felt that he was being stared at. He raised his head to look around, and across the arena was a woman. She seemed to be around the same age as Kal, 18 or maybe 20, and she had short red hair. She also had a soft, beautiful face.
It would have been more beautiful if it didn’t have a scowl on it. She was glaring at Kal, like he had done something bad to her. No, like he was an abomination.
‘I know who you are,’ rang a voice through his head. Kal almost jumped out of his skin. He turned and looked for who made the noise, but found no one.
He turned around to face the short, red haired person again, but there was no one there.
“What just happened…?” Kal wondered aloud. He sat back down.
He heard Roland announce that the time was up and that the break was over. People started returning to their seats. Kal could see the people on the next floor down giving him thumbs up signs.
“Well, Duel 1 was exciting, was it not?” Roland asked the crowd.
“Yeah!” the crowd agreed.
“Let’s see how the next duel fairs! Duel two is between Shylish Mastero and Derek Seffman!”
A tall, slender boy with brown hair stood up out of the crowd. So did a short man with thinning hair.
Each one stood on opposite ends of the court and raised their duel disks.
“Duel!” each one said, and they each drew five cards.
Kal didn’t pay much attention to the duel, his mind was too preoccupied. He did notice that the slender boy with brown hair was Shylish, and the short man with thinning hair was Derek. Shylish dueled with an unusual set of ‘Music’ monsters, and Derek was dueling with an ordinary Insect Swarm deck.
‘Is this what I really want to do?’ Kal wondered again.
Kal’s mind told him that this was a great opportunity, and that he barely got in. He was the last to get in, as a matter of fact. And he even got in for free! He shouldn’t waste the opportunity.
But his heart told him the opposite. He could possibly do the thing he wanted to do the most if he was stuck here at a tournament. He should leave, and go find Joel Karne.
Joel Karne is the biggest crime boss from Aequitas, and was the only person that had beaten Kal when he was at his A game. Because of that victory, he was allowed to go free for the night and no one had found him since. This affected his work, and made him lose every duel afterward. Even losing to duelists with the weakest decks Kal had ever seen. Because of this he was fired from his job.
All Kal desired in this world was to find Joel Karne and put him to justice. He could possibly get his job back too.
Part of him needed to find Karne. He needed to prove that he can win against all odds, and that he wouldn’t lose to anyone.
So Joel Karne was on the edge of justice. The justice to be brought to him, and his freedom.
And Kal was on the edge of justice as well. On the edge of doing what is right, and total revenge.
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